W: Doing Its Part to Incite Class Warfare

At what point is it considered obnoxious to bemoan your station in life?  Because we think that point was reached with W’s “The Babysitters Club,” April, wherein a roundtable of four accomplished, wealthy women complain about their nannies.  Who knew that hiring live-in help was fraught with the potential for so much heartbreak?

We’ve heard our own stories, however, about high-maintenance nannies among this particularly fast set:...

These women have full-time, live-in help, and the nannies are the high-maintenance ones?

There’s the one who asked if the family would be ordering Mr. Chow’s for dinner and the baby nurse who, on a charter jet to go skiing with a family, announced she’s “never been on a private plane this small.”

Oh, we get it now.  There’s nothing worse than when the help doesn’t know its place.

Really, we have to applaud W for broadening our horizons with this child-care provider summit.  We had no clue how incredibly taxing it is to find someone who’ll be a devoted caretaker and scrub the shower.

“That’s a struggle we’re having—most nannies aren’t housekeepers.”

Gasp!  A real struggle indeed!  Have they considered an awareness-raising ribbon campaign?  Or perhaps a telethon?

Worse—if you can even believe this—there are nannies who would rather not dedicate their entire lives to these privileged Park Avenue spawn.  Such gall these sitters display, having their own dreams and ambitions that don’t involve raising someone else’s children!

“I had this great young Brazilian nanny and I was really excited…But she aspired to be something else.  Not a babysitter.  That was such a bummer.”

Sure, Cristina Greeven Cuomo didn’t choose to stay home with her own children, but when the nanny wants a different career, it's unacceptable!  Nannies are...different!  Somehow!  In a way no one quoted in this article can explain!

Sarcasm aside, at least all this blubbering was confined to a mere two pages (albeit two oversized pages).  And we should clarify that, especially after reading this article, we aren’t suggesting that these women give up  their careers and stay home with the kids.  In fact, quite the contrary—we’re thinking that the less influence these women have on their children, the better.

Comments

[B]

I have truly come to enjoy your posts. Thanks for providing the laughs..."Oh, we get it now. There’s nothing worse than when the help doesn’t know its place." That's rich! Hah!

I HATE THEM! I am an NYU graduate who is now a working actor, I babysat through college and just up until a year ago to pay the bills. God knows what a catch I was to these women "to find a college educated, echem white, English speaking Nanny, is very rare" I corrected her, that I wasn't a Nanny, I was an actor who babysat. I was like don't get to used to me lady, and bolted for the door, mind you this was after I asked her chubby, pale skinned, curly haired demon spawn what he liked to do for fun, and his answer was "playing in daddy's Mercedes and going to Dylan's." Don't get me wrong, I have worked with some amazing families, but some of these women are DOUCHY DOUCHE DOUCHES!!!! What ever happened to the days of day care, nursery school, after school programs, and good old Saturday night teenage babysitters, who plop the kids in front of a movie, or a board game, and eat pizza??!?!?!

[prolly stupid :-)]

i agree, but if there were no "douchy douche douches". how would u have payed 4 yer extra stuff thru college? don't we neeeed the idiots of the world sometimes??

[My boyfriend calls me a plutocrat]

Well... they might have a point... I grew up in Latin America in a household of seven plus two live-in maids, one that came three times a week to do laundry, a gardener that came twice a week and a do-it-all guy who changed light bulbs, washed the cars, cleaned the dogs' poop, etc.--he didn't live with us, but he came every day.

We never had a nanny or a chaufer, though... My mom took care of us, took us everywhere, etc.

Anyway, the point is... Let me tell you, there really IS nothing worse than when the help doesn't know its place. If they want to get another job and move on in life, that's great, but to be constantly telling (or showing) the people who sign their paychecks how much they hate their current jobs is just obnoxious.

[the good nanny]

ugh. yet ANOTHER reason to hate W magazine. i nannied full time for a year and a half for the only sane family left on the upper west side. since i spent so much time with their family, they completely treated me like a member of the family. i adore those two little girls, and i still hang out with them and occasionally have drinks with their parents. but standing around at their chi chi private school, seeing the way other nannies are treated, it's enough to make one go screaming back to brooklyn. which i eventually did. smart, educated, caring women are treated worse than if they were scullery maids. and not only by the filthy rich parents, but by their bratty progeny with their heelies and their scooters and their laptops and their iPods. all of which are, of course, schlepped all over town by the nanny. i am of the opinion that nannies should just go on strike, turning off their phones until those manhattan mommies (and the miniature adults they are 'raising') learn some manners.

[Stunt_Girl]

That's the point though, these women have hired nannies, not maids. If they want someone who will do all the rest they should have specified. And if the mother of these children isn't going to devote herself to them, it's a bit rich asking anyone else to do it. Yes there are some dedicated nannies out there who make it their lives, but there are a lot of people who do it for the money and no other reason. Expecting everyone who walks through their doors to be the former is asking too much.

[Emily]

What a lot of these women need to realise is that if you pay peanuts, you get monkeys.