This family used an online site to find/hire their babysitter. They caught her on videotape abusing their 13 month old son!

Police: Parents Catch Nanny Abusing Their Son On Tape

CHEROKEE COUNTY, Ga. -- Cherokee County detectives arrested a 23-year-old nanny after the parents of a child produced a video tape showing alleged abuse, authorities said.

Detectives arrested Constance Smith of Rockmart Thursday.

Officials said Smith was charged after the parents of a 13-month-old boy reported they had a video of Smith slapping their child in the face, pushing the child to the ground and pinching the child on the leg. The family said they recently began videotaping their living room due to concerns they had about their son's behavior.

"And actually the first day that they placed this video camera, within the first hour of this babysitter watching the child, they captured the images on video," said Sgt. Jay Baker with the Cherokee County Sheriff's Office.

The child's parents said they never expected what they saw on the video. They said Smith attacked their son as he stood crying at the bottom of some stairs.

"On the video, you see the babysitter slap this 13-month-old boy in the face. She also pinches the boy and pushes the child to the ground," said Baker.

The parents said they hired Smith from a national online childcare service that specializes in in-home child care -- called www.SitterCity.com. Smith had worked in the home 3 days a week since September.

"Apparently she's been a babysitter for numerous years and has worked for this SitterCity.com for at least four years," said Baker. "It's just one of those things where you can't be too careful about who you invite into your home to watch your children. And fortunately this family was smart enough to capture these images on video."

When contacted by Channel 2, Melissa Underwood with SitterCity.com released the following statement: "Sittercity takes our position as the safest way to find childcare very seriously. We have a detailed four-step screening process that parents can conduct on sitters, including references, parent feedback, an interview process, and background checks. As soon as the allegation was reported to us, we immediately took action and terminated the sitter account in question. As a further precaution, we reached out to our competitors to alert them of the issue. In keeping with our safety-first policy, we have reached out to assist local law enforcement and have spoken to the child's family to express our sympathy and support."

The parents of the boy asked investigators not to release the videotape for fear it may jeopardize their criminal case.

Smith has been charged with Cruelty to Children in the 1st Degree. She bonded out of the Cherokee County Adult Detention Center Thursday night on a $22,000 bond.

When I was growing up, parents could afford to have one parent at home to watch the children. What a nightmare this must be for parents today--to have to find reliable sitters in this crazy society.

I feel for any and all children who are harmed by our society, and for the parents who care about them.

You will remember the English nanny who actually murdered the son of a prominate couple a few years ago. That was when I learned about nanny recordings that people were putting into their homes to check up on what 's going on at home while they were at work. Lots of abuse was discovered! I cannot imagine hiring someone over the net to look after my child, regardless of how much he or she came recommended by the go-betweens.

I think some American couples like to refer to their babysitter as a "nanny" anyway. Makes them feel like they're hiring someone superior while they are thinking of themselves as being among the "aristocracy."

My granddaughter will be going to a pre-school that allows her parents to view what's going on at the site via the internet when she's about three. It's a bit more expensive than other care centers in the Lubbock area, but well worth it.

Well worth it indeed!

No matter how good teachers are, there just may be more home schooling in the future.

Remember the days when many of us were able to count on not having bad things happen because of society? I know some people always have had this, but those of us who didn't were blissfully unaware of the problems in our country.

Perhaps if we had stopped the danger to others, there would be less danger for us today?

Two things...

First, I cannot leave my son with a random person. In his almost 7 years, I can count the people on one hand that I have ever trusted him with and all but one couple were relatives, and they have been my very close friends since I was a child. People often try to give me and the BF a hard time because we will not accept party invites. There is no way on earth I am trusting a teenager with my son.

Catherine about the center for your granddaughter. When my son first started daycare at 9 months old, I did the same thing. Went to a super expensive, hospital sanitary type place with cameras in all the rooms, internet monitors, monitors available in the front office...etc. One day we walked in to pick him up and on the monitor things looked fine (teacher had back to camera and was rocking a child)...we walked into the room and it was my son she was rocking and she also was holding a blanket over his face and forcibly restraining him. Of course, we snatched him up, left, called the police, child services, etc. In the interim, the recorded event was accidentally taped over. The daycare claimed that children were often put to sleep with blankets held over their heads because it "soothed" them. Child services notified the daycare in advance that they were coming to visit (time and date), so everything was perfect when they got there. Case was dropped. Total bullshit. Anyhow, my point is that most things are deceptive and people generally aren't really nice to kids, especially if they are only getting paid $6 an hour.
The next place I put him was on campus and only hired certified teachers. It was wonderful.

What I remember most about this case was the judge reduced the conviction from murder to manslaughter so he could reduce the mandatory prison sentence to time served and deportation of the nanny. He blamed the grieving mother saying she should have stayed home and cared for her own son. He seemed most upset by the fact she was a lawyer and made at least five times as much as he did.

The nanny was upset that the parents restricted her time off after they tired of paying for repeated attendance to the same Broadway play, Rent, over fifty times. She was such a deprived employee.

These happenings give new meaning to the term, "It is a jungle out there". Scary!