Now That's Honesty

I was flipping around the Yahoo page and I came across the story of a mom advertising for a nanny. The first line? "My kids are a pain."

The surprise? She got someone to take the job!

I was a professional nanny for fifteen years. I went to California Nanny College, graduating in 1988, and worked for families up to and including when I had my own children. The children I cared for were mostly preschoolers, with a few elementary-aged kids here and there. They were challenging, but never a pain. (My own kids are twice as challenging, and still not pains.)

Now, I can be irreverent and flip and toss off one-liners about my kids left and right, but I'm usually being wry and funny and doing the nudge, nudge, wink, wink that lets you know it. That's not always easy to do in writing, so I try to err on the side of caution... But even I would never advertise for a nanny with those opening words!!

My hope is the mom placing the ad has a funny sense of humor, and that the nanny who answered the ad gets it... I also hope that the nanny that answered the ad and got the job is not in for a session in hell. (Believe me, I've had some jobs that were REALLY close to that -- and it wasn't the kids, necessarily.) I also hope the kids have a healthy sense of self-esteem, and that they aren't out of control and wild. (For the nanny's sake, and for the kids' sake -- life is really hard if you rule the roost at home and then get a taste of the real world.)

The last thing I realized as I read this news snippet was that I felt a bit of jealousy... for the mom, not the nanny. Imagine what you could do with a built-in babysitter!

Sigh...