The Nanny days continued

So without any other choice back to New Jersey to recover from a hangover and resume my nanny duties. My days off were Sunday and Monday so Tuesday was a go slow day and so I would allow the kids to watch TV while I stretched out on the floor nursing my sick stomach from the alcohol I had consumed!I remember the mother coming back fron her excerise class and asking me if I was homesick (hungover more to the point)but I said yes and she said she new because of my lack of interest in the kids huhhhhhhhhhh wait a minute I'm a kid myself and you have me locked up here day in and day out minding your children when alls I want to do is have some fun so I decided thats what I would do.

A new face from Ireland arrived in the area I believe she was 18 at the time and boy what an attitude she had. Myself and the other nannies were introduced to her and I found her to be funny from the get go and she is still very funny to this day. She had told her new employers she didn't smoke and there she was hanging out the bathroom window crying with a cigarette hanging from her lips (too funny) mind you I had told my employers I smoked but was told under no circumstances was I to smoke in the house or around the children and I have to admit I broke all those rules and smoked out my bedroom window and wherever I felt like smoking ( now who had the attidude).

Meanwhile my friend who had come here October of 1985 and who was the one to convince me to come over here was working for a family who had her working sometimes till 11pm and later. She had written to me that she was having a ball, driving up and down highways( she was not driving anywhere) going to the mall hanging out in New York City on weekends and that I should come to the US rather than to France were I was to go with my soccer team, and with all the fun she was having I figured I'll give it a try. I remember the first night I was in the USA and staying with her, well she began telling me her daily routine and how miserable she was, and the woman she worked for was only interested in herself ( her hair her nails and how she looked) I must say when I did meet her she had sooooooooooo much make up on it was hard to figure out what she looked like )and did not care about her kids!!! She had me laughing so hard I had pains in my stomach although it wasn't really funny( jesus christ I thought to myself what have I done coming here). Xmas eve of 1985 my good friend was cleaning stupid copper pots that hung ona wall over the stove, I had come over to her after I had finished what I thought was a long day( not compared to hers) and she was crying while scrubbing the kitchen so to lighten things up I told her to tell her to fucking clean her own shit!!! Needless to say my buddy did flee that house while the mother and father was on vacation never to return( good for her). It was the granny who told her not to put up with her daughter inlaws behavior and if she wanted to leave she would take care of the kids till they return and thats what my friend did she got the hell oyt of there.


One particular Nanny reminds me of "Vivian" from the just like family book she was the bees knees or so she thought, I thought she was an idiot for assuming so much responsibility and had told her "hey listen when they are done with you you're out of there" well needless to say she was not going to listen to a green horn just of the plane a couple of months afterall she had been doing her job alot longer than me, and I believe she truly enjoyed what she was doing. She was so involved with every aspect of the two girls lives and acted like they were hers.I could not understand her, she prefered to stay in New Jersey on the weekends and have her hair and nails ( fingers & toes) done, she would even take the kids on her days off and work till very late (maybe she was looking for some brownie points), me I waited all week for some time off and was gone from the house like a bullet as was alot of us who worked in the area. We laughed and joked at this nanny and somtimes went to where she worked and looked through the sliding door glass at her sitting there like she owned the house and kids and the husband. On one ocassion I had taking the dog with me and while we were watching her the dog got loose and we had to chase after him for what seemed like forever (serves our rite for snooping)There was a rumor going around that she had an affair with the man she worked for jeeze that explains why she never wanted to leave that house not even to come to Howard Johnsons for an ice cream sundae.
To be continued

The new book out "just like family" reminds me and I'm sure alot of others out there of jobs we have or jobs we've had over the years. I know for me I've worked for the best family and the craziest family over the 25 years I'm in the nanny business, no two families the same but all with the same objective to love and cherish the children we take care of 5 days a week. When I came to the USA back in 1985 it certainly was not my goal to take care of somebody elses children and yet thats what I found myself doing, meanwhile I had no knowledge of changing, feeding or caring for infants or toddlers quite honestly I hadn't a clue and therefore figured I would wing it for a while till I found something I enjoyed not realizing I was not ina position to do much of anything else as I was not here legally at the time. Is this the reason many of us worked and sometimes lived in other peoples homes? I think so!!!

When I read the book by Taishe Blaine it began to bring back my own memories good, bad, funny, mischievous and sometimes emotional. I began to think back to the jobs I had as a nanny at the age of 20, the first taking care of 2 little boys in New Jersey one out of diapers and one in diapers and while they were good kids I was too imature to care about them as their mother did. I did as I was told (not really but gave the impression I did) and looked forward to the end of what was long long days. I was homesick and would think to myself what the hell am I doing taking care of somebody elses children??? and futhermore why can't these mothers take care of their own kids after all they didn't work,but there I was on a wing and a prayer living with strangers and the family having a stranger living with them and the saying "just like family" being said frequently huhhh I didn't feel part of nor did I want to after all I was not going to do this kind of job for long, so I tried to make the best of it. I went so far as to be willing to walk the dog ( ME that was unheard of) just so I could have a cigarette what I didn't know was I was to pick up the dog crap with a plastic bag (yuck yuck yuck) and I became the laughing stock among our nanny group!!!!!!

There was alot of nannies around the area were I was working at the time and so we would meet up and go galavanting around the area or when the weekend came off to New York City to party and drown our sorrows after all if you were doing what we were doing you'd be drowning your sorrows too!! I was free when I was in NYC and free to do as I pleased which I did and when the time came to return to the family for another long week I didn't want to go back but of course I had to were else was I going to go in this huge country.