Pros and Cons of Nanny Cams
Written by admin on November 4th, 2008 in Electric.
You’ve heard of nanny cams, but do you know whether a nanny cam would be right for your situation? Many people consider nanny cams when hiring sitters for their children, pets or homes, but most people don’t really weigh the positives and negatives of nanny cams.
On the positive side, nanny cams can be very useful, particularly if you have very young children who cannot communicate with you about their sitter’s actions when you’re gone. In this case, nanny cams can catch wrongdoing, from the sitter inviting her boyfriend over to a sitter spanking your child against your wishes. Nanny cams can be used as evidence to support firing a sitter, and if your sitter knows you have a nanny cam, it can act as a deterrent.
Most people who consider nanny cams immediately think of these advantages and benefits. There are certainly some good reasons for installing and using a nanny cam, and many people feel this is the best way to take care of their families.
Nanny cams can be very good tools. However, as with any tool, there are downsides as well, and these should be considered. It’s not a matter of whether nanny cams are good or bad, so much as knowing all the pros and cons, and making a wise decision for you.
One bad thing about nanny cams is that a lot of sitters object to being recorded secretly. When you think about it, this is pretty reasonable. As a society, we believe in trust, and when we feel someone is sneaking around and trying to prove something about us, we feel we’re not trusted. Many sitters’ objections to secret nanny cams are about the secrecy, more than the camera itself.
Realize that when you set up a nanny cam, you take on the burden of watching hours and hours of footage on a regular basis. If you’re not willing to watch the recordings, nanny cams are basically worthless. No matter how much information you capture, if you’re not looking through it and making yourself aware of what’s going on, the recordings don’t matter.
Another downside of using a nanny camera is that you essentially become the “nanny cop.” You have to decide if something that happens is a big enough deal to pursue, and you have to confront the sitter if there’s a big problem. Everything becomes more important and more urgent because it’s on video, and you take on the job of checking up on everything that happens while you’re gone.
For some people, nanny cams create more problems than they solve. This happens when you don’t watch the video tape regularly, when you don’t learn how to quickly fast-forward through regular, normal, activity, and when you don’t act like a responsible, reasonable employer.
When you hire a sitter, you’re making a commitment, not only to your children to provide a suitable nanny, but also to your sitter. You’re promising to be fair, honest and reasonable. You’re agreeing to pay a fair amount of money for a fair day’s work. In turn, the sitter agrees to perform her (or his) duties as well as possible. Nanny cams can help both of you keep your agreements by insuring that the sitter does what is required by the employment contract. They can build trust by letting the sitter and the employer talk about behavior that may need adjustment.
Nanny cams can be great for the employer/sitter relationship. Or they can create nightmares you would never have imagined possible. Whether your nanny camera experience goes well or poorly depends not so much on the nature of nanny cams, but on your nature as a parent and an employer.