Nannies share their stories working for rich families, entitled parents, and Karen mommies: 'The 3-year-old slips up and calls me Mama constantly'

Advertisement
  • 01
    Cheezburger Image 9925627904
  • 02
    Nannies of Reddit who have worked for the extremely wealthy, what are some of the craziest parts of the job?
  • 03
    IslandoftheMoths. My younger sister nannies for an wealthy couple, and she's mentioned a few things that really threw her off at first. The biggest thing was how uninvolved they are with their daughter's life. She was born early in October, and by the end of the month, my sister was already spending 80+ hours a week with her. The husband has only been home one day since she started working for them and the wife is gone from 6am-9pm every day.
  • 04
    Then, it was how casual they are with money. They've offered to pay for work on her car countless times, and the wife gave my sister all of her Christmas decorations from last year. Most of them still had their tags on them. She spent $20/ornament and didn't even use them.
  • 05
    pinkpanda24. A few things... 1. The drama that is just like TV. The dad in the family I nannied for had a secret daughter and other family for 5 years.
  • 06
    2. How money was just thrown around. A $500 rocking chair is the wrong shade of orange? Just throw it in the garbage and go buy a new one. Daughters are fighting with each other over their Barbie dream houses? Calm them down by taking them to the American Girl store for new dolls and then get them a blowout afterwards.
  • 07
    3. And yet, despite this, they forgot to pay their bills for three months and got the gas turned off in their house.
  • 08
    847362na · I work for a middling- wealthy family, have been for two years. My girls don't think they're well-off because they don't have a tennis court or a rock wall, but they know kids who do. They just have no idea how much money they have. The younger one doesn't realize why it's inapproproate to joke about how much money she has stashed away for "chores." She doesn't realize that it's more than I earn in weeks, and that she didn't actually earn it.
  • 09
    Njoerun I used to be an au pair for a super rich family in China. The funny thing was that they already had a nanny. She was extremely poor and had to give a bratty kid everything she couldn't afford for her own kids. The kid even kicked her and she simply tolerated it. The weirdest thing was that whenever we went somewhere as a family, she was the one taking care of the child while the mother was talking to others. She even slept in his room while his mom had her own bedroom. Personally, I just
  • 10
    Alsadius. I do tutoring for a wealthy family, and despite the fact that they seem to have come from fairly average backgrounds, they really have no concept of how normal people think of money. I was talking about visiting the library after a session, and they were confused by the fact that I didn't just buy all the books I wanted to read. They also pay me every six months or so, and seem confused that I want money so often- they're good for it, after all. They fly their kids home from their high
  • 11
    blinkiwi I work at a private school and get a lot of nannying/babysitting jobs through my job. Most families that I work for try to teach their children to appreciate what they have, but the most striking thing I've witnessed in some families is such a short- lived excitement that the kids get from receiving gifts/gadgets/outings/pock et money, and it is because they get these things EVERYDAY! To them it's normal and expected. It's hard to reward these kids for good behaviour when the rewards ar
  • 12
    Rickayy_OG I briefly worked with a wealthy family a few months ago before I had to leave the job because it was just unbearable. They were pretty nice to me, but terrible to their kid. The kid was 6, for context. These things were more sad than crazy.
  • 13
    The saddest thing I saw was how much money they spent on themselves and paying me, and how little they spent on their kid. I was being paid pretty well (enough to almost match what I was making at my primary job while working half as many hours), the parents would be buying new iPhones, new clothes, wine, etc. Their kid however, had clothes that didn't fit, broken toys that were "too expensive to replace", wasn't enrolled in any after school activities either because it "cost money".
  • 14
    Some other things I noticed was how uninvolved and bad at parenting they were. The kid was 6 still wearing diapers because he hadn't been fully potty trained. When I asked about it, they said "oh we just never fully got around to it, he's scared to go to the bathroom because one time we spanked him because he peed on the floor". He was completely undisciplined and whenever I told him no, he would try and hit me, scream at the top of his lungs, try and bite himself.
  • 15
    One time I was with the mom and him in the store, and he tried to take a bunch of candy from a shelf and eat it, and I said he has to wait for his mom to pay for it first, and he LOST it. Tried knocking over shelves, ran around screaming, tried hitting OTHER people, and swearing up a storm. His mom LEFT the store, and said oh that's too much for me to handle, that's why you're here.
  • 16
    In the end I just quit because I couldn't stand them as parents or people. They were so arrogant, always neglecting their children. The day I left, they wouldn't even let me say goodbye to their son, who was crying watching me from a window as I walked to my car. I guess they trained him not to say hi to me and give me nasty looks when I see them in town, because they'll go out of their way to avoid me if we make eye contact in town.
  • 17
    [deleted] ⚫ Not really part of the job, but that customers (yacht cleaning) didn't care how poor the cleaner was. I pull out my flip phone to answer a call and they just kinda turn away like it's gross. One guy dropped his iPhone in the ocean by mistake, said "oops" and grabbed another from a kitchen drawer.
  • 18
    cnk93. The family I work for right now is very wealthy- the live on fifth ave right across from central park. Three things. The first is the clothes. The girls have numerous name brand clothing items- Burberry, Ralph Lauren, Vineyard Vines, Lilly Pulitzer, etc. The 6 year olds backpack was 85 bucks. I get wanting your kids to have nice things to wear, but they're growing fast, and that expensive. The 3 year old outgrew her wardrobe last year, it was al replaced with the same expensive stuff.
  • 19
    Next would have to be scheduling. They want there children to be successful in life, I get it. But every day is something- piano, ballet, tennis, Chinese lessons and squash. They have no time to play.
  • 20
    The last part, which is a bit more sad if you ask me, is the lack of connect in the girls and their parents relationship. It could be as simple as scheduling-for instance, the mom doesn't know when ballet and tennis is, I do, or as intense as worries and fears. They confide in me and when I bring it up with the mom she's surprised to learn they're not just always happy because they have nice things. There's definitely something missing there and it shows. The 3 year old slips up and calls me "ma
  • 21
    nerdcamper I once nannied for a family who had a small room with board games/table top games lining the walls (as an indication of wealth) I was called in on weekends to spend time with the 6 year old and play games with him - basically do anything he asked of me. A majority of the time the mom and grandma were home and in their own room. Once the mom and dad were home and napping. I was basically being paid good money to play with the kid. Of course, the kid was incredibly bossy and fussy when
  • 22
    sydthesquid18 I worked for an extremely wealthy family and when I was going to eat lunch with the kids, I was told "the help" eats in the kitchen. I quit soon after that.
  • 23
    loritree . I work in a rich town working with kids. I'm frequently asked to babysit. Some parents are awesome people who love their kids a ton, but the work a lot. Some parents are total f |a[ who probably only even had kids to impress the neighbors. The craziest part was this ultra wealthy couple, whose bedroom is about as big as my house, stiffed me my last pay check.

Tags

Scroll Down For The Next Article