Nanny cams can contribute much to the sense of security you have for your home and child alike. They keep you appraised of what your sweetheart is currently up to, and if his or her nanny has everything well in hand. Any busy parent should take advantage of what one has to offer, especially since they start off at more than affordable prices.

As much as the camera is great, much of its functionality is lost if the camera is exposed. A hidden nanny cam is much more likely to catch a nanny who is behaving inappropriately, or someone trying to steal your valuables. How to hide a nanny cam is therefore as important as its actual specifications, and should be considered before you purchase one.

How to hide a nanny cam: Don’t hide it

Before you go down the path of sneakiness and stealth, consider if perhaps you could benefit from a camera that’s in plain sight as well. Having one out in the open sends a clear message that the nanny’s behavior is being supervised and will spur her on to approach her duties with due diligence. It might also discourage someone from stealing your belongings in fear of criminal prosecution.

Creative Hiding Places for a Nanny Cam

Today, everything that’s needed for high-quality video surveillance can be shrunk to less than a size of a box of matches, opening up a wide array of creative camouflage options for your nanny cam. Here are some common and uncommon hiding places and forms they can assume:

A Stuffed Toy – This one has become kind of a cliché by now, but that doesn’t mean that it’s no longer effective! A stuffed toy, like a bear or an elephant, is the perfect spot for the nanny cam – the toy is usually at the child’s level, providing a clear view of what happening. It can be placed in a pile of other stuffed animals, making detection that much harder. Plus, it’s another companion your child might grow fond of.

Phone Chargers – To be as inconspicuous as possible, these should be plugged into an outlet in the kitchen or your living room. Atop a counter, they have a good viewing angle that captures the nanny’s face and movements. These are usually also powered via the grid, so there’s no fear that the battery will run out of juice at any time. More expensive models are actual chargers too, which increases their usefulness even more.

Mantle Pieces (Clocks, Urns, Picture Frames etc.) – This is a somewhat broader category of hidden cameras. What they have in common is their disguise as that of an everyday household object you’d commonly find in someone’s living room. Putting the nanny cam on a dresser, coffee table or mantle gives it a good vantage point needed to encompass as much of the room as possible. They can tell the time and perform the duties of a regular alarm clock, hold your photos or the ashes of a departed family member and make your house safer, too.

A Plant – Another hiding place suitable for the living room or the foyer. The plant’s foliage can completely disguise the camera’s lens, and since there isn’t much to interact with other than to look at the plant, the risk of exposure is minimal. Naturally a plant such as this is artificial, so the only thing you need to worry about is whether the camera inside is charged and has room left on its memory card.

A Book – A classic from evoking scenes in James Bond movies, a book is an ingenious camera hiding place for the parlor or your study. Since it’s assumed that it goes inside a bookcase, chances are you can get a good vantage point for one if you put it on or near the top shelf. The bindings some of these “books” come with are beautiful and an impressive amount of work has gone into making them as believable as possible. Put yours next to volumes of similar size and color to complete the illusion.

Conclusion

Hiding places for nanny cams are already abound, and as time goes by, manufacturers are thinking up even more creative ways to conceal them. When you think you’ve found the perfect disguise and spot for yours, invite a friend over and tell them that you’ve bought a nanny cam. See how long it takes to find the cam. If it takes them a good long while, or they aren’t able to find it at all, that’s when you’ll know you did well.