Wednesday, January 13, 2016

In Liu of Child Care

"R.I. woman arrested for leaving 8-month-old in car in Wrentham" by Astead W. Herndon Globe Staff  January 06, 2016

A Rhode Island mother was arrested Tuesday after she allegedly left her 8-month-old daughter alone in a cold car for 10 minutes while she shopped at the Wrentham Premium Outlets, authorities said.

Yau Liu, 27, of East Providence, R.I., was charged with child endangerment, according to Wrentham police.

She admitted to leaving the baby unattended for 10 minutes and said she was “not aware that it was against the law,” the deputy police chief, Bill McGrath, said in an interview.

McGrath said he did not know if Liu had been arraigned on Tuesday. David Traub, a spokesman for Norfolk County District Attorney Michael W. Morrissey, said the office was looking into the case.

The baby was discovered shortly after noontime when a shopper heard a crying child in the parking lot, McGrath said. The person looked into the car and saw the baby was alone. The car’s engine was not running, and no one was in sight. Police were then called, according to the deputy chief.

Liu returned to the car before police arrived, McGrath said.

“Regardless of the law and the temperature, that behavior is unacceptable,” McGrath said. The temperature was 23 degrees at noon on Tuesday in Wrentham, according to the National Weather Service office in Taunton.

Using camera feeds from the shopping mall, police verified Liu’s claim that she was gone for 10 minutes, McGrath said.

The baby showed no signs of trauma but was taken to Norwood Hospital as a precaution.

The state Department of Children and Families was notified, but the case was referred to the Rhode Island Department of Children, Youth and Families, McGrath said. As of Tuesday night, the Rhode Island agency could not be reached for comment.

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I guess she couldn't hire a nanny:

"Nannies in Mass. often denied overtime, survey says" by Beth Healy Globe Staff  January 11, 2016

A survey of nannies working in the Boston area found a wide disparity in the hourly wages of people who care for children in private homes, and a majority said they are not paid the legal rate for overtime.

The information was gathered by the Matahari Women Workers’ Center, a Boston group that advocates for women and immigrant workers, with a goal of gathering data about nannies’ demographics and employment situations.

It's too the benefit of us all, or so I was told.

The group’s members conducted the census by interviewing 350 nannies at playgrounds, libraries, and train stations, in neighborhoods from Brookline and Jamaica Plain to the South End and Cambridge. The survey found that nannies in this region come from more than 25 countries and earn a median hourly pay of $18.

OMG! 

That is like hitting the Powerball out here (strange how the ballooning to a billion-plus pot came on the heels of rigging scandal that has now been forgotten with the only avenue of wealth available now before you, 'murkn. So how many tickets are you going to buy?)!

But there is a wide range of pay, from $30 at the top end to as little as $4.44 per hour, after accounting for unpaid overtime hours or fixed salaries that don’t meet the minimum wage....

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I hope the background check works out; however, who would ever want to go back to babysitting after what other nannies have been through?

UPDATE: Police say nanny was drunk while caring for Salem infant