‘Nightmare nanny’ claims exploitation by employers

A woman dubbed the "nightmare nanny" in US media after she refused to move out of the house of a California family she was fired by a month ago has said she was being exploited.

Diane Stretton, 64, had suggested she might finally leave the home yesterday — dependent on the weather being cool — after being fired on June 6 and spending the time since then holed up in her bedroom.

Stretton claims she was forced to work for days on end without breaks looking after Ralph and Marcella Bracamonte’s three children, and quit before she was fired.

“They were the ones that were trying to exploit me as if I was some poor migrant worker from a foreign country that they could just exploit and work 24/7,” Stretton said.

The Bracamontes have said they hired Strettonin March to watch their children and do chores for room and board in their Upland home but that she stopped working within weeks.

They say the nanny told them she had chronic pulmonary disease, ignored repeated requests to leave, and made them scared for their property and the safety of their children, ages 11, 4 and 1. Stretton said she was doing her job and claimed the family tried to feed her dog food and that Marcella Bracamonte had a temper.

The family had said the woman threatened to sue them for wrongful termination and elder abuse.

A judge has ruled in the nanny’s favour, saying the family did not end Stretton’s employment in a legal manner.