First, allow me to preface this first post by saying that I have nothing against non-English-speaking nannies. In fact, I believe that a child growing up under the supervision of a nanny from another culture and background can only add to that child's development and understanding of this diverse world, and I have no doubts that the maternal instinct speaks every language.
That said, there does seem to be some instance of misinformation being delivered to this city's youths. I recently witnessed a nanny feeding a toddler his snack, dangling a spoonful of banana before his eyes. There was nothing extraordinary about the sight - in fact, it was the picture of urban childcare: black nanny, white child. What caught my attention, however, was when the child turned away from her in protest, the woman tried to coax him with the words: "Eat this. It's full of brains." Yes, brains. Her spoonful of brains. Of course, we all know the message she was trying to convey: "Eating this banana, full of vitamins and nutrients, will feed your brain and make you strong and healthy and smart." But the delivery was all wrong. And I watched the child take a big bite, digesting a mouthful of potassium and years of confusion.
Children, as we all know, are sponges, absorbing anything and everything they hear, see, and experience and holding onto it for - seemingly - ever. Child A still shocks me with her ability to recall minutiae of years past: the choice word that escaped me when I knocked the coffee tin out of the freezer, the nail polish I wore on the first night I tucked her into bed. For this reason in particular, we need to make sure that we are conscious of what we feed them, whether it be a "potty word", a processed food...or brains.
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