I should fire my nanny right?

So my almost 11 month old has been crawling for about 6 weeks and she’s recently started climbing stuff. Slowly, but still climbs. I work from home but hire a nanny to watch my daughter. Not that it matters, but it’s a very easy job. My daughter is an easy going kid, I pay over the average rate for my area, and there’s a lot of downtime since she takes 2 naps. I’ve had this new nanny (NN) for about 2 weeks. My daughter seems to like her and she seems fine but she’s 19yo so she’s only but SO responsible. Our other nanny was in her 70s and great but she injured herself and had to stop working with us as a result. That being said, she has gotten back in touch with me to say she’s feeling much better and feels ready to return to work. I’m a little nervous she will re-injure herself though.

Anyway so NN was downstairs at the kitchen sink and I heard my daughter crawling around but I heard her getting closer to me. I got up and walked to the stairs where I found her CLIMBING THE STAIRS in a completely different part of the house than NN. She was only up one stair thankfully. But I said “Claire! What are you doing climbing the stairs! Lets not do that it’s not safe” and I scooped her up and put her in her jumper in the kitchen where NN was. NN just said “oh she really enjoyed the salmon you made her for lunch!” I was honestly so pissed I just kind of walked out. Also I think it’s important to say that on Monday I told NN that Claire has started climbing stairs so to keep a close eye on her since we don’t have a gate at the bottom of the stairs yet. But the stairs aren’t really anywhere near any of the rooms Claire plays in so it shouldn’t be a big deal to just guide her away from the stairs.

So I should fire her right?

Update: I decided to fire her. Here’s why. First of all, this was not her first offense. I’ll explain more on that later. Secondly, she wasn’t sorry and honestly didn’t seem to think she did anything wrong. That raises red flags because that means something like this might happen again. But mostly I just can’t trust her now. I’ll never be able to sit in my office without wondering if she’s actually keeping an eye on my daughter or not. Her main job is to keep my daughter safe. If I can’t trust that then what’s the point in keeping her around? I’m lucky that in my area there seem to be far more people looking for childcare jobs than those who need childcare so I have the luxury of being picky. And when it comes to my kid, I will be.

As for the other offenses, they were small but noticeable. And considering this nanny has only been with us 2 weeks there were far too many. I noticed her put my daughter in a pack n play so that she (the nanny) could read her book in peace (keep in mind there are 3.5 hours of paid nap time buoy in where I told her she can do whatever she wants). Also my dogs were eating breakfast one morning. My husband was rushing out the door and trying to feed the dogs before he left. I was preparing my daughter’s breakfast. NN was on the floor with my daughter. My daughter started crawling towards the dogs eating. My dogs are very sweet and have never shown aggression towards my daughter but one of them especially is territorial of food (like many dogs). I had my hands full and I thought NN was watching my daughter so when I noticed her take an interest in the dogs I said out loud from the other side of the room “Claire that’s not safe to bother the dogs when they eat. Let’s leave them alone.” This was more of a prompt to NN to intervene since my hands were busy and my husband was out of the room at this point. NN just watched her keep crawling to the dogs and so I jumped in front of her to block her with my feet/legs since my hands were dirty. My one dog did give a low growl. NN still didn’t pick her up and move her! Around this time my husband came back in the room and picked her up and put her somewhere safe until the dogs finished their breakfast. It just feels like NN has zero common sense on safety. I can’t trust her.

In response to the “you should have a baby gate” comments: first of all my daughter JUST started taking an interest in stairs and as I mentioned they are on a completely different side of the house than where we hang out. To get to the stairs it takes more than “I looked away for just a second.” Also we ordered a baby gate but it didn’t work with our bannister so we had to return it and haven’t found one that works. However keep in mind that I specifically mentioned this to NN that she likes to climb stairs but we don’t have a baby gate so she needs to keep a close eye. ALSO we have several toys for her to play in that keep her contained (jumper, exersaucer, etc) so there’s plenty of opportunity and I even used doing dishes as an example of when is a good time to use those tools.

So basically I can’t trust this girl and timing happens to work out since she’s going on vacation next week and my former nanny can start back so I can just let NN know her services won’t be needed anymore. I’m honestly shocked at the amount of parents commenting here who would give a second chance to someone who could have really hurt a kid. Safety is just something I’m not willing to fuck with. Sue me.