10 Shocking Confessions from Nannies
When you get a nanny, you're getting a member of the family. They're all up in your space and your business, all day, every day. But it's not exactly a reciprocal relationship, and your nanny may just have some secrets she's keeping from you. Here, 10 nannies confess exactly what they've been keeping from you.
1. "When I moved into my house a few years ago, I needed to put in some landscaping. At the time, I was watching several kids, aged 4 to 10. I'd ordered a ton and a half of wood chips and needed to move them from the driveway to the back yard. So I gave the kids buckets and wheelbarrows and they worked hard! We moved the whole pile in a day. They also helped me strip wallpaper in our new house. It was awesome. The kids had a blast, I got free landscaping, and I still got paid on top of it. Parents often think that children are too little to work or don't want to work. They can and they do, if you just show them how and give them ideas."
2. "I am a runaway nanny! Right out of high school, I got hired by a couple on the east coast as one of three nannies to watch their two kids. It was the best gig ever for an 18-year-old. They bought us the best food, nice clothes ,and we got to go on all their fancy trips with them. At the end of the summer they took us to Hawaii. There was a big pro sports game going on and the parents made it so I could take the kids to watch part of the practice. I've never really liked sports, but then one of the players saw me watching and came over to talk to me. Long story short, we ended up eloping a few months later and now I'm married to a millionaire baller - best job perk ever."
3. "I worked as a mother's helper for a mom who felt like she shouldn't need any help. Her husband hired me a few weeks after they had twins, in addition to their 3- and 4-year olds. It was so frustrating, because I'd start to do something for the kids and then she'd rush in and finish it even though she was doing something else, not to mention recovering from having twins. But the funniest moment was when we were at the park with her kids and ran into some of her old friends. When they asked if I was the nanny, she said 'Oh, no, I could never leave my kids with a nanny, this is my partner Jane.' I think she meant partner in parenting but they assumed it was like a life partner or an open marriage or something. One of them finally said, 'Oh that's great! So how did you two get together?' I winked and answered, 'On Craigslist. And she pays really well, so.' The looks on their faces! I could have died laughing."
4. "I worked for a very rich family for several years caring for their 3 kids, all under 7 years old. The parents made a wing of the house just for the children with our bedrooms, a kitchen, a huge movie room, a pool, three bathrooms, and full indoor and outdoor playgrounds. It sounds like a dream but there was a catch: They 'locked' us in. Once the parents had said goodbye to the kids in the morning, they programmed a lock on the outside of the door. I could get to the backyard but it had a high security fence. Other than that we couldn't go anywhere. Once I was desperate to get out and I called the mom's brother (who had a crush on me) and begged him to come over and type in the gate code so we could take a walk. It was basically the fanciest prison ever. And what if there had been a fire? It's been 5 years and I still sleep with my door unlocked."
5. "The family I worked for had a grand marble staircase in their entry. It was gorgeous but scary because it was so steep and slippery. One day, I ordered pizza and was running to get the door while carrying the 9-month-old baby when I slipped on that staircase. I dropped the baby and we both rolled all the way to the bottom. She had a huge goose egg but otherwise seemed OK. I was terrified if I told her parents I'd get fired. So I put a hat on her until the swelling went down and stayed awake all night for the next 3 nights, watching her while she slept to make sure she didn't have a seizure or stop breathing. She's 5 now and totally fine so it worked out."
6. "There's a stereotype of the hot young nanny seducing the man of the house, but in my 2 decades of experience as an in-home caregiver, it's usually the dad who makes things uncomfortable. I had one guy tell me that watching me take care of 'his seed' was the hottest thing ever. It was so gross."
7. "I worked for a man who was having an affair. His lover would come over at the most random times and they'd use his bedroom while I kept the kids occupied in another area of the house. That was bad enough, but he wanted the kids and me to be part of the deception, even making me rehearse made-up storylines and telling the kids what to say to their mom. I felt like the other other woman in the relationship. So when I found a pair of the other woman's panties in the bathroom, instead of hiding them, I left them on the floor by the wife's side of the bed. Yeah, he got busted."
8. "I was hired to be an au pair in another country. I thought it would be a great way to learn about another culture, have fun, and make some money at the same time. Unfortunately, I got really homesick once I got there. I didn't click well with my family, I didn't have any friends, and the pay was so low I felt more like a slave than an employee. Plus, the kids were terrible brats. I tried talking to the agency who placed me and they told me it was normal to feel that way and to stick it out. I said I'd give it at least three months, but a few days later I woke up in the middle of the night with a panic attack. I couldn't deal with the thought of doing this one more day. So I grabbed my stuff, snuck out, hailed a taxi to the airport, and bought a ticket for a flight home using my emergency credit card. By the time the family woke up I was halfway over the Atlantic. I didn't even leave a good-bye note."
9. "Part of my job as a nanny was to take the kids to all their after-school activities like painting lessons, language lessons, etc. I was supposed to stay and watch them so I could report back on their progress to their parents. But it was stupid boring. So I'd just drop them off and then go to a cafe and work on my novel for a few hours. Whenever the parents asked, I'd just tell them their teachers gushed about how amazing the kids were and that they might be prodigies - who knows if it was true, but it was what the parents wanted to hear."
10. "I spent a year working as an au pair (nanny) in Berlin, Germany. I loved the family and the kids were adorable, and they loved being my tour guides helping me explore their city. The only problem is I might have relied on them too much. One day, we'd taken the train so far out of town that by the time we needed to head back, I realized we were completely lost. I didn't want to scare the kids, who were 5 and 8, so I didn't say anything but just got on a train. We rode different trains for 6 hours, well past their bedtime. The whole time I tried not to panic and keep them calm, but we were all starving and I was running out of money. Finally, we stumbled on a sign that looked familiar and with the help of an English-speaking passenger, we were able to get home. Their parents were so worried - until I told them that I'd taken the kids on a special field trip to see how mass transit works and to test their map skills. The parents praised me for thinking up such a creative and educational project and the kids felt like true adventurers. To this day, I still don't know how we made it home."
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