We know that some parents are a tad bit overprotective. At the same time, we live in an era when being careful sometimes doesn’t feel like enough, and we feel like we have to go to unimaginable lengths to feel safe and make sure our children are safe, too.
After all, everyone has heard “better safe than sorry” more than a few times while growing up. And it makes sense that when you’re choosing someone to care for your kids, you’re especially thorough and selective. But some people take it a step further, just like the woman in today’s story, which was shared by a babysitter over at r/nanny. And here’s what readers had to say about it.
Choosing someone to be at your house and look after your children is quite a scary process
A woman who had just been hired as a nanny and was enjoying her job realized her boss knew a tad bit too much about her personal life
Under California law, tracking someone else's car is a misdemeanor
The boss clearly overstepped by placing a tracker on the woman’s car, regardless of the police’s reaction. Especially because, according to the California Penal Code, placing an electronic tracking device on a vehicle that isn’t your own, without documented consent in an employment context, is actually illegal and can constitute a misdemeanor.
Even if the mother claimed she had verbal permission, that would not be considered legal consent under California law. Nonetheless, the police dismissed the situation, and unfortunately, research shows that law enforcement officers will often dismiss tracking devices as a minor, nonviolent, or civil dispute rather than a potential crime.
And surprisingly, it is so common for police to dismiss these cases that statistics show that, among victims reporting tech-based surveillance, fewer than 30% found the police response useful and appropriate. Apparently, this can stem from lower institutional prioritization and gaps in officer training.
This situation can cause severe psychological damage to the woman being stalked
Despite this behavior from law enforcement, being stalked can actually prove to be a severely detrimental situation for the victim. And in this case, the narrator explains that she also had another stalker, adding to her concerns. Psychologists warn that when someone’s freedom or privacy is threatened, it can trigger hypervigilance, anxiety, paranoia, and severe stress responses to seemingly meaningless things.
At first, though, the woman understood the mother’s surveillance of her kids. After all, specialists warn that parental anxiety can drive parents to install location trackers like AirTags on a toddler’s diaper or backpack. But this actually has a name in the security expert world: “surveillance creep.” And when the woman took it a step further, that’s when the nanny realized her boundaries had been crossed.
So, what can she do from here forward? Legal experts suggest that contractual boundaries should always be in place. This means an explicit, written contract detailing surveillance policies should have been established before employment. That way, she would have a paper trail to protect her rights in a similar situation.
But tell us, Pandas, have you or someone you know ever been in this position? Tell us all about it!
Readers were absolutely baffled at the mother's actions, theorizing that she may be mentally unstable
