Real Life Nanny Diaries?

SugarChick10

Real Life Nanny Diaries 10 nannies in 9 years? Of course it must be the nanny's fault every single time.

I'm not knocking working moms, not knocking any sort of childcare that isn't provided by the parents. I'm a working mom, my mom helps out MH & I M-Th by watching LO in our home while I'm home on Fridays. LO is starting daycare full-time in Sept when my mom goes back to work. I realize we're lucky that my mom can help us out at all.

My mom has been doing light clean-up and cooking dinners while she's with us, and I've repeatedly asked her not to. Aside from me having to learn how to deal with those things while working anyway, my mom isn't with us for that--she's there to take care of our LO.

For some reason, the tone of the article rubs me the wrong way. I'm not familiar with either, but I thought there was a difference between "nanny" and "housekeeper".

Maggee206

WOW!  I used to work at a place where the nanny diaries could have been based off of.  I have to say that in my life I totally under-appreciated how hard childcare was until I had one of my own....and I now have a new appreciation for people who do provide childcare.

Good luck in daycare! 

stever

I didn't like the article. Her POV wasn't clear and she didn't come across as very likable.

ToshaGirl

While 10 in 9 years does sound extreme - I'm on nanny #3 and she'll likely be gone soon. We've treated all of them like gold, but between deciding to go into another line of work, or school, or somewhere for more money - it's almost impossible to keep one.

Our current one swore on a stack of bibles she could make a long term commitment. 3 months in, she's considering moving to another part of the country.

It's like that for every single one of my friend with nannies too. Nearly impossible. My friend came home on Friday to "I'm quitting. This is my two weeks notice but I am going to be sick for the next 2 weeks. So see ya".

Re: The article, 2 sides to every story of course. But nanny headaches - keeping them anyway - are huge.

 

NewMrs07

Yeah, a nanny and housekeeper are two separate jobs. Unless you hire someone for both jobs and pay them enough. I have a friend who uses a babysitter and pays her x money per hour. When she wants the babysitter to also cook or clean, then she pays her more money that day. I think that's very fair. I don't have a nanny or housekeeper but if I hired a nanny, her main job would be taking care of LO. If she wanted to do other stuff while LO sleeps, great, but I wouldn't expect it.

The writer of that article comes across as a biatch. I can't believe she treated all those nannies that way! If I were a nanny, I wouldn't want to work in her house either. I have much respect for people that take care of children and I'm always very thankful and friendly to the daycare providers that watch Adrian.

ScoobyM

I know I'm really late to respond to this post, but that article was really annoying.  I have had the same nanny for over 3 years now, and she is the first and only nanny we've had.  I have no drama with her;  she is wonderful with my children and they adore her, and she does a lot of wonderful things with them, she is much more than a babysitter.  I just can't imagine why this writer has had such a difficult time finding a nanny that is compatible with her and her family, but if she really has gone through 9 nannies in 10 years, then I have to believe the problem is hers, not theirs.  From the examples she described, it sure sounds to me like she wasn't exercising very good judgement in her hiring.  I really hate that this article generalizes so much and makes it sound like nannies are so high maintenance and difficult.  My experience has been the total opposite - I constantly try to dream up ways to keep our nanny in our family even after the kids are grown.  She is amazing and I would be totally lost without her.

I know my experience may not be the same as everyone else's, but I still think the writer is an extreme case.