Nice to Nanny - the ups and downs of my past 7 years as a professional nanny

The gators are coming! The gators are coming!

2008-06-25T22:48:00.004-06:00

Due to a stressful night, I only slept about 4 hours last night. This scared the bejezzus out of me. Watching a 3-1/2 year old on 4 hours of sleep is a recipe for disaster. I knew that I would suck at work today, but I was determined to make the best of it.

Luckily, I'm damn creative. We built a fort under the pool table, which required less effort than building it with the couch and coffee table as support. After entering the fort and getting comfortable, T left the fort and announced, "It's a beautiful day! It's snowing!"

Sensing an impending fake snow battle, or something equally physically demanding, I quickly jumped in with, "Okay! We've got to guard the World's Biggest Snowball!" I read him correctly, and he was immediately under the table with me again, pretending to be a mounty like Pablo and Tyrone in "The Snow Fort". (It's really cool that he can reenact a plotline from something we haven't even seen in awhile. )

"We got to protect that snowball from GATORS!" he proclaimed.

"From gators?" I asked, thoroughly confused. I mean, he had been talking about crocodiles earlier, so I don't know, maybe this is his new thing?

"Yes, GATORS! Those gators are gonna get that SNOWBALL! The gators are coming!"

"Ohhh! Raiders? The raiders are going to try to get the snowball?"

"Yes, raiders! They're coming right now!"

Lucky for that snowball, T and I are both very adept at offering protection from both gators and raiders. We run a full-service operation around here.

Back again

2008-06-25T22:44:00.002-06:00

It's been awhile, and boy, does it show in Thomas' growth and development! He's just such a PERSON now! I know, I know, that's what they do. It just kills me to see a fully-functioning 3-1/2 year old mind, knowing that we can fall into a long discussion at any moment.

I'm still loving my job. I was expecting the THREE attitude, so it's not too terribly bad. And he's a good kid, most of the time.

Mainly, I'm posting here today to figure out if I want to start writing regularly again. I've been keeping all my great stories and posting them elsewhere, and I think I'm getting tired of mixing kid stuff with non-kid stuff. I realized I have a perfect outlet in Nice to Nanny, and I think I need to start utilizing it.

decision

2007-12-01T23:51:00.000-06:00

I think that, for now, Nice to Nanny is going to be a weekday-only blog. It seems like too much trouble to come up with entertaining things when I write everyday...I end up putting in things that I'm not crazy about, just to have a post. Anyway, NaBloPoMo is over, so I'm going to cut way back on the posting...start focusing on quality, not quantity.

But, because I did finish for the month, I'm going to exercise my bragging rights. Ha! I did it! Woohoo! Or, because it might be more appropriate for the badge image, hoo hoo!

the plot thickens

2007-11-30T18:51:00.001-06:00

So Thomas' cousin Cody is going to be a big brother. The ultrasound on Wednesday indicated it's going to be a little girl, so Mommy has been talking to him about Cody's new baby sister. It's very exciting. Fast forward to this morning...

When Mommy goes to the laundry room, Thomas notices a bag full of baby stuff that Mommy has started collecting to give her sister. Thomas points at the bag and says, "That's for my baby sister!"

"No, Thomas, that's for Cody's baby sister." she reminds him.

"No, that's for my baby sister!"

Oh dear. As if the pressure wasn't already on, now he's already talking about his own baby sister as if it's a given fact. All day long, he told me about his sister. He doesn't understand that only Cody will be getting the baby sister. This should be fun.

only child?

2007-11-29T21:17:00.000-06:00

Thomas is sad because his cousin doesn't live with him. I think it's making Mommy rethink the whole only-child thing. We shall see.

bored

2007-11-28T22:04:00.000-06:00

I'm not sure what to do with Nice to Nanny anymore. I thought it was an awesome idea in the beginning, but that was when I just wanted to vent, give advice, and generally be cool. It's a lot harder with a great job. A weird complaint, right?

See, I'm torn, because a big part of me wants to share the blog with my boss. I know she would enjoy reading more stories from our days, and I could probably get permission to use pictures, and the whole thing would be a lot more interesting. I do have a video of him that she told me to put on YouTube, but it's a crappy cell phone video. An awesome, hilarious video, but very low quality.

On the other hand, if my boss knows about the site, I can't ever rant about the job on here. Not that I've ever had reason to, but I never like having a choice taken away from me. So I don't know what I'm going to do. For now, I'm just trying to finish out November. We'll see what happens after that.

hard to resist

2007-11-27T21:16:00.001-06:00

I went shopping with my mom today. We stopped by the Gymboree outlet and oh my, was it hard not to go crazy. A lot of the shirts that I fell in love with last time, at the other Gymboree outlet store, were in clearance at this store. I could have easily bought Thomas a new wardrobe. Luckily, there were so many things that I wanted to buy that I walked out without buying anything. "It's hard," I told my mom, "because he's not really mine." She reminded me that they're always a little bit mine, but I said it wasn't the same. She knew. She's watched me with too many familes, and too many kids, over the years, not to understand.

As we walked out into the mall, I said, "Stores like that are just one more reason to wait many more years before having one of my own. I want to be able to afford to buy all the cute stuff when I fall in love with it." She told me that's what grandparents are for. Uh oh. I've never gotten any pressure to have kids from them before, but I fear it's coming soon...

good to be back

2007-11-26T23:04:00.000-06:00

We were a bit worried about this morning. After 4 days with Mommy and Daddy, all of us expected Thomas to have a bit of a fit when they went to work. He is two, after all, and prone to separation anxiety fits from time to time. They can be heartbreaking, and we all knew a big one was coming this morning.

Luckily, I spotted a new Backyardigans DVD at the library on Saturday!

Oh yes, Mr. Thomas may have started out a bit clingy, but when I mentioned that new movie during breakfast, he was eager to drag me to his room to watch it. Then he told Mommy good-bye, gave her a kiss, and hardly looked back.

Thank you, creators of The Backyardigans. Thank you, from the bottom of my heart.

refreshed

2007-11-25T17:19:00.000-06:00

I'm grateful for my long weekend. Not only have I gotten tons of stuff accomplished around the house, I am rested and eager to get back to work. I love my job, I really do. I feel blessed to have a job that I actually look forward to going to. I enjoy my work, I enjoy my job, and I'm not cooped up in an office all day. I'm sure I've written about this before, but I'm feeling it again tonight. Great kid, great bosses, great job, lucky nanny. If all the world had jobs that they loved, there would probably be no war. Or something like that.

difficulty

2007-11-24T14:12:00.001-06:00

I realized this morning that a 4-day weekend is going to make it a bit harder to post every day. So we're going Off Topic today. Be brave. Hold on tight.

When I was a kid, maybe a teenager, I got dragged out the the Day-After-Thanksgiving sales with my mom. I believe this was before Black Friday was coined. At any rate, I hated it SO MUCH, I swore I'd never be like that. I do love a great deal, but not as much as I love my sleep. Also? I hate shopping on a normal day. I hate holiday shopping during the regular holiday season even more. So to face the crowds on the biggest shopping day of the year? When it's still dark outside? And there are people, oh my god, the people? Shoot me now.

So, to protest the commercialism, and mostly the traffic, I slept until 1:00pm yesterday. It was awesome! Thank you, Bosses, for the extra day off. Apparently I needed it.

a thanksgiving miracle?

2007-11-23T15:06:00.000-06:00

It snowed yesterday. Big, fluffy flakes of snow. I hope Thomas got some at his house. He's been asking for snow for about a week now, but I really doubted he would see any this year. We live in a hot state to begin with, and this year has been really weird. His wish came true though, and we had a White Thanksgiving. Oh, happy day!

Happy Thanksgiving!

2007-11-22T11:18:00.000-06:00

We'll be going to my parents' house, and later to my husband's parents' house. Thank God wine will be available all day long.

Thomas and I got ready for Thanksgiving yesterday by drawing turkeys and practicing what turkeys say. I tried all day to get him to say, "Gobble gobble gobble," to no avail. Then last night, I got a text message from Mommy that said, "Thomas was just asked what a turkey says, and he said, 'Gobble gobble'! Good job, Em!" Ah, my day's mission had been accomplished. Thanks, Thomas!

heart melting

2007-11-21T21:42:00.000-06:00

In the middle on an oh-so-TWO afternoon, Thomas pauses as he runs by me in yet another circle. He throws his arms around me and says, "I love you, Em! I'm glad you're here today." Warm fuzzies, meet my heart.

I'm glad I'm here too, Thomas.

the beginning

2007-11-20T09:39:00.000-06:00

I started this blog when I got spontaneously fired from my last job. I liked having an outlet to vent, without worries of being discovered. I did disguise facts, just in case any future bosses were to discover it. And then when I worked for the V family for my few-days-from-hell, I lost all energy to write. The experience was really quite upsetting.

About a month after that debacle, I thought I would finally start writing again. Then, on a whim, I answered an ad for a part-time position. Mostly I was just trying to fulfill my weekly application quota for unemployment. But there was something in this woman's ad that touched me. I answered it, even though I knew I couldn't really afford to work part-time.

The mom sounded really nice in her emails and on the phone, and the interview went really well. She offered me the job on the spot. I accepted, but the entire drive home I was freaking out. How could I accept a part-time job? What was I thinking? The interview was Friday. I spent all weekend stressing about it. I was hesitant to tell my husband that I had taken the job. After all, I had just told him I only applied in order to meet that quota. I didn't know what was going to happen. I feared I had made a HUGE mistake.

Accepting that job was the best thing that's ever happened to me. Okay, I could argue the point for several things throughout my life, but professionally, taking this job was a fantastic choice. By changing my income so drastically, I forced us to stick to a strict budget. Although I make about half of what I used to, this year has been tremendous for us. We have an actual savings account with real money in it, we have paid down a whole lot of debt, and we live more simply and happily than we ever have before.

Best of all, I'm working for a family that I love. The child is wonderful. The parents are amazing. They go above and beyond anything I've ever seen. They really do value me, and it's an awesome feeling. As a nanny, it's not that common to find these things. I'm not expected to do any housework or errands or anything except play with, and take care of, Thomas. Because of this, I end up doing a lot of little things around the house because I want to. I don't mind unloading the dishwasher or vacuuming the crumbs off the kitchen floor from time to time, because I know that they don't expect it of me. When I had some car trouble and asked for a recommendation for a mechanic? Daddy had it completely fixed for me by the end of the day, and wouldn't even hear of letting me pay him back for it. I went to work with a dead alternator and a lot of worries. I left work with a fixed car and a heart full of joy.

another milestone!

2007-11-19T23:03:00.000-06:00

Today I put Thomas to bed for his nap in big-boy underwear.

HE WOKE UP DRY!

Hallelujah! We are one step closer to conquering this thing! Plus, I got some points for being the coolest nanny ever. Win-win-win.

it's perfect!

2007-11-18T22:45:00.000-06:00

Look what I stumbled upon this weekend!

It's a Pablo the Penguin cake pan!

Thomas would go nuts over this! His birthday is coming up in the next few months. I'll have to tell Mommy about this. The look on his face on his birthday video would be classic!

This cake pan needs to be acquired ASAP!

why?

2007-11-17T18:39:00.000-06:00

Is there any phase more obnoxious than the "Why?" phase? I thought this phases usually started at 3, but Thomas is ahead of schedule. He started with the Why?s several months ago. Oh, how I miss those days.

Because you know what is even MORE obnoxious than the "Why?" phase? The "Why not?" phase! Because, really, how do you answer this? He doesn't use it in context, he just asks Why Not to everything. We finally just started answering, "I don't know how to answer that!" to which, of course, he replies, "Why not?"

We were playing with a stuffed cow the other day. I was the voice of the cow, and whenever Thomas would tell the cow something, the cow would ask, "Why?" After two Why?s with two answers, I decided it was time to turn the tables. The cow asked Thomas, "Why not?" to which he relied, "Cause...I don't know how to answer that!" Ahh, mimicry.

fine

2007-11-16T22:09:00.000-06:00

"I messy messy! I need to take a bath!"

"No, Thomas, you took a shower this morning!"

"Ooookay. I'll take a bath this weekend."

"That's a good idea. I'm sure you'll need a bath after you play at the park tomorrow with Cody."

"No, I not get messy at the park! I just play with Cody! I not get messy at the park...it'll be fine. It'll be fine!"

worst part of this job

2007-11-15T15:46:00.000-06:00

No, it's not getting peed on, though that is far from pleasant. The worst part of this job is actually being bored on your days off! I've never had another job where I say, "Man, I wish I didn't have this paid time off today. This just totally sucks."

Today is just one of those days when I'd rather be working. It could be that I'm just missing Thomas, it could be that I'm having hide-and-seek withdrawls, or, most likely, that I'm just bummed about the fact that I actually have to go to the grocery store. Probably part of the first and the last. What can I say? The kid makes me laugh. Also, grocery shopping with no list or menu plans is just plain wrong.

sweetness and pee

2007-11-14T20:36:00.000-06:00

As I wipe off his hands, he throws his little arms around me and squeezes me so tight. "I love you today! I just missed you on 'acation!"

I was out of town last Thursday-Sunday. Thomas has been extra-cuddly and sweet all week. Truly precious. He, like so many before him, really make me want my own someday. Someday in the far future. I still enjoy it when Mommy & Daddy come home waaay too much.

Not so precious? Today I got up from relaxing on the couch to find my back pocket soaking wet. How I didn't notice while sitting there, I have no clue. We didn't play in that room this morning, so it must have been from an accident early this morning, before I got there. Nice.

a new milestone

2007-11-13T16:05:00.000-06:00

As I've mentioned, potty training with Thomas is going pretty well. As of yesterday, we have hit another milestone. Closer and closer to toilet independence we come.

Before naptime, Thomas always goes to the bathroom. His pacifier magically appears in his bed at that time. Because of this routine, it is really easy to get him ready for bed. Well, yesterday, he took off to go to the bathroom while I quickly stuck the pacifier in my pocket and followed him. I must have taken too long. By the time I got back to his bathroom, he was pulling up his pants. That's right, folks. Thomas, on his own, 1) pulled down his own pants and underwear (we've been working on this for awhile), 2) used the toilet all by himself, and 3) started dressing himself again. Ah, autonomy. I'm so proud.

better than boobies

2007-11-12T18:12:00.000-06:00

Thomas has discovered breasts. It started when he poked Mommy's chest and announced, "Squishy!" Ever since then, he's been obsessed.

Today he poked me and said, "You got your squishies in there!" Ahh. So he is no longer describing them. Now he has named them. Squishies. I like it. It's cute. It's also pretty darn innocent-sounding. If he were to say something in public, it wouldn't be immediately obvious what he was referring to.

In a previous job, when the little boy asked what they were, the mom told him they were boobies. He walked around all day saying, "boobies" and poking me. I told her that I had just told him it was part of my body. "Oh," she said, "I wish I had thought of that." I wish you had thought of it too. It's a bit embarrassing to have to pretend it's not happening when you're out at the grocery store.

For a two year old boy, "squishies" > "boobies". Spread the word.

four dollars!

2007-11-11T21:38:00.000-06:00

I bought Thomas a shirt yesterday at the Gymboree outlet. It's a yellow t-shirt with a race car and the word "Speedy" on the front. He will LOVE it! Daddy's a race car driver, and Thomas is into everything cars. We spend a lot of our days crashing cars or racing in the driveway. It's going to be perfect. I found a very cute hat too - race car on the front, "Pit Crew" on the back. Unfortunately, I noticed a stain on the bill before I bought it. I couldn't wipe it off, and they didn't have another one in his size. So sad. But I'm still excited about the shirt. It's going to be so perfect! Now my only problem is going to be waiting until Christmas to give it to him!

not even in arkansas

2007-11-10T15:55:00.000-06:00

When I started watching the Q family, I was 22. The youngest boy was 4. As I drove the kids around to various sports practices on my first day, the 4-year old suddenly asked me, quite seriously, "So, Em, you got any grandkids?"

Umm...nope.

we teach him too well

2007-11-09T18:06:00.000-06:00

Thomas knows that whenever we go outside to play, we have to put on his socks and shoes, his jacket, and his hat. He's generally very good about doing this, but I'm afraid it may have been hammered a bit too deep into his little head.

November is very mild this year. A little chilly, of course, but no so much that I've bothered digging my jacket out of the back of the closet. I'm a hot-natured person, and I rarely wear long sleeves. Even in winter, I'll usually take a jacket with me, but carry it around everywhere, never actually wearing it. There's a heater in my car, and there's always a heater on at the house, so I usually get too hot if I actually wear the jacket.

Thomas and I decided to go play outside the other day, and after I got him all dressed, including his jacket, I told him it was time to go. He stopped dead in his tracks and told me, "You need to wear your jacket." I explained that I didn't have a jacket. He looked at me very seriously and said, "You can't go outside without your jacket! It's cold!"

Well, shoot. I mean, what do you do with that? I was completely floored. On one hand, I didn't want to invalidate what he has been taught by telling him that I didn't need a jacket to play outside, but on the other hand, I knew that he needed to get some energy burned off before naptime. After standing in silence for a moment, I told him that I forgot my jacket at home, but I would wear my sunglasses instead. For whatever bizarre reason, this made perfect sense to him, and off we went.

at least he knows

2007-11-08T23:21:00.000-06:00

As he pulls his long t-shirt down over his knees and shins, so only his feet are exposed:

"Thomas, you're being silly!"

"I AM silly!"

And off he ran.

something fishy

2007-11-07T18:16:00.000-06:00

What is up with Bob and Wendy? I've had my eye on these two for years, and I swear they're not just business partners. Something is definitely going on there. That's some definite sexual tension if I've ever seen it. C'mon, Hit Entertainment! Show us the Bob & Wendy love! You hint at it enough, just give us a darn wedding. The machines could be the attendants. I'm pretty sure Dizzy would catch the bouquet. I can totally see the whole thing. Maybe you could make it into a special episode. Then you can make another spin-off of them building their dream home! And they could have a Baby Bobby Builder! But all this pretending-to-be-just-friends business? Frankly, I'm sick of it.

just what i've always wanted

2007-11-06T18:36:00.000-06:00

We've been working on potty training with Thomas for quite some time now. He's pretty much got the peeing down, but he has yet to poop in the potty. He is good about trying every day, but no luck so far. We read books about going potty, we read books on the potty, offer encouragement, talk about what a big boy he is...and we offer bribes. Incentives, prizes, rewards, whatever you want to call them, it amounts to the same thing. We bribe the kid. At least, we try.

Well, Thomas is nothing if not a little myna bird, a mirror, a reminder to always watch watch whatever you say if he's within 1/2 mile of your mouth. Most of the time it's cute, sometimes it's not so good, and sometimes you just fall down laughing. What did I hear today?

"Em, if you go poop on the potty, I'm gonna give you a TROPHY!"

In the past, upon exiting the bathroom, I have heard, "Good job, Em!" and "I so proud of you!" I think the offer of an actual trophy takes the cake. I wonder where I should put it?

quite appropriate

2007-11-05T18:53:00.000-06:00

We got out the stickers today. I told Thomas to pick one out to wear, and as usual, he picked one out for me as well. He chose a sticker of Thomas the Tank Engine for himself and gave me a sticker of Emily, the girl engine.

Thus, he provides me with the perfect cover, should I ever slip up and use the pseudonyms out loud....which I almost did today. There is a reason I picked "Thomas" as his online name, I assure you.

more commissioned artwork

2007-11-04T19:45:00.000-06:00

This time, it was Tyrone. No specific version of Tyrone was attached to this request, so I just drew plain old Tyrone. Thomas drew Tyrone first, I guess to show me what he was wanting. His Tyrone can be seen in the top left corner. He then ran off to drive his car in circles around me.

I started off with the head and antlers. When I moved down to the shirt, Thomas pulled his car up beside me and stepped out. He stared down at the driveway and, completely flabbergasted, asked, "What are you doing?"

"I'm...drawing with chalk?"

He thought about this for a moment, eventually replying, "Oh yeah. Because I told you to draw Tyrone. Good job, Em." And off he ran, back to to the car to drive more circles around me.

When I announced that I had finished, he came over to inspect my work. Now, I thought I had done a pretty good job replicating Tyrone from memory. I mean, I'm not an artist, but I thought he was pretty recognizable as a moose-like animal, and I had the stripes on the sweater and no pants. I was pretty proud of it.

Apparently, it wasn't so great. After carefully studying my portrait, Thomas grabbed a piece of chalk and made a few changes. Clearly, I hadn't made Tyrone's antlers long enough. Looking at the picture of the real Tyrone, I see that he was right. Silly nanny. What was I thinking?

what's in a name?

2007-11-03T18:40:00.000-06:00

I've had to come up with pseudonyms for everyone mentioned on this site. Obviously, I would not use a child's real name online, but I also would not use my own name, nor the real names of any family I've ever worked for. Sometimes it's easy to come up with a name substitution. Sometimes it's a bit harder. I can't go into my methods, because it might be too easy to take the fake name and work it backwards until you find the real one. Since my career could, at some point, depend on privacy and discretion, I can't take any risks. Paranoid, much? Yeah...

I've worked for a total of 8 families as a nanny in some capacity. I have yet to even mention all of these families, let alone come up with fake names to represent them, but I think it's time. I'm trying to come up with something clever for each of them, and once I have the names established, I thought I'd go through and discuss each job. A post per day, explaining each one. The good, the bad, the ugly. Every job has been so incredibly different from all the others. It's really interesting to see how many different styles of living and parenting there are out there. Here's a very quick rundown of everyone I've worked for:

The * Family - a summer nanny job when I was a teenager
The * Family - another summer nanny job I had as a teenager
The * Family - my first real nanny job
The * Family - had sort of a nanny-share going with the Johnson Family
The * Family - a summer nanny job while I was in between real jobs
The Q Family - biggest job I've ever had
The V Family - worst job I've ever had
My Current Family - best job I've ever had

Okay, so I can't come up with names on the spot. Hopefully, as I'm writing about each of them, a brilliant pseudonym will suddenly pop into my head. Until then, Mr. Em (Mr. Nanny?) is politely requesting a turn on the computer. Seeing as I'm a nice wife, I shall oblige.

just one of many

2007-11-02T23:05:00.000-06:00

Working for Mr. V in January was one of the worst weeks of my life, and it only lasted 3 days. I have never felt so degraded in my life. The man is a textbook Narcissist and a right pain-in-the-ass. He feels entitled to a perfect life, while doing nothing for himself, and finding fault in ever single one of his former employees. I still get stirred up inside just thinking about the crap I witnessed in those three days. Here is just one example:

I had just finished feeding Toddler Boy. I had removed his feeding tray and was holding/standing him up while cleaning mashed goo from all over his face, hands, and arms. I hear Mr. V calling from the back of the house, "Em? Can you come here for a minute?" I call back that I will be there in just a minute, and resume my cleaning of the gooey boy. I don't even start cleaning the dishes or the tray, just the kid. I throw him on my hip and walk to the back to see what Mr. V needs. This took all of 3 minutes, tops.

I find Mr. V in the laundry room, standing in front of the machines. He turns around when I enter the room, and says, in a disappointed tone, "Oh. I was going to to ask you to turn on the washer, but you took too long, so I just started it myself."

Oh. My. God. He called me from one end of the enormous house to the other, just to start the freaking washing machine? The washing machine he was standing RIGHT IN FRONT OF?!? There are just no words strong enough to describe the utter disbelief that I felt. This was real. I was not hallucinating. It really just happened. Oh. My. God.

---

Well, that's a big enough dose of Mr. V for one night. As I said, recalling that week with that man still gets my insides stirred up. I'll revisit that time again, once I have regained my strength. Ohhhh, but I've just remembered. You may be wondering why Mr. V was home at all, seeing as I was there. You see, Mr. V does not work. Mr. V is not a stay-at-home-dad. He is an important man. Mr. V stays at home, along with his full-time nanny, and - wait for it - his TWO full-time personal assistants. You heard me correctly. I'll let that stew in your brain for awhile.

pop pop pop

2007-11-02T20:20:00.000-06:00

This past week, Thomas has become totally fascinated with my gum. Like, completely fascinated. I popped a few quick bubbles on Monday and he immediately stopped dead in his tracks and asked, demanded to know, "What's that?" The accusatory words rushed out of his little mouth as if pushed by some magical force. I told him it was my gum. Seeing as I chew gum all the time, I thought this was a bit of an overreaction. He wanted to see it, I obliged, and then he kind of eyed me suspiciously, like, "I don't know what you're up to with this gum business, but I'm on to you." He kept looking at me. I smiled and chewed more quietly, and eventually he went back about the toys. After that, every time I'd pop a bubble even a tiny bubble, he would stop and give me the look, though he never asked about it again. I probably popped a few extra bubbles for my own amusement. Ahem.

Fast forward to Wednesday. Mommy's home and gives him a few fruit snacks for a snack, since he hadn't eaten since lunch. He ate them quickly and begged for more. These are the same fruit snacks, mind you, that he absolutely refused to even consider when I mentioned them as a choice earlier in the afternoon. Since I was not going for the giant-bucket-of-candy snack that he suggested, he had no interest in anything I had to offer. I know, I know, I'm so damn mean, making him starve like that. Even though I offered up everything in the entire house, I denied him the candy, and thus, am evil. Bad nanny.

So Mommy and I are talking about Halloween when Thomas wanders over to us, opens his mouth as wide as he can, and proclaims, "See! I got gum! I GOT GUM!" He was so darn proud that he got us to give him gum. Sooo proud.

I've been waiting ALL week for him to ask for gum. I knew he couldn't have it, but I didn't know how to convince him of that without MAJOR dramatics. The fact that he now thinks that fruit snacks are gum? A better solution could not have been found in the teacher's edition of a 7th grade math book. Of course, when he finally catches on that his "gum" neither pops nor lasts beyond 10 seconds, we may have to come up with a new strategy.

a creative afternoon

2007-11-01T15:06:00.000-06:00

The scene: a perfect autumn day. The sun was shining, a gentle breeze was blowing, and we had decided to bless the driveway with our chalk masterpieces.

Mostly I was observing, but then, suddenly, my astounding artistic abilities were called into play. While I usually stick with flowers, bubble letters, and funny faces, I occasionally do accept requests. This was one of those days. Not for the first time, Thomas asked me to draw Yucky Man, one of the two supervillans from Race to the Tower of Power, his favorite Backyardigans episode of the day. Yucky Man is obviously played by Pablo, the blue penguin (what, you can't tell that's a penguin?!), and aspires to make the whole world "smelly, gross, and sticky." A fine role model. In case you can't tell, that is green goo shooting out of Yucky Man's hand.

Also in this picture, you might notice some of Thomas' own artwork. Right about Yucky Man himself is a beautiful swirl, representing the Tower of Power. To the right of that, you will see a beach, complete with sand from his sandbox. The beach is unrelated to our story, but I did think the use of actual sand was a nice touch. The green boat may or may not be the boat that Weather Woman and Captain Hammer use to sail across the lake, that is, until Yucky Man uses his supervillanous powers to turn that lake into a sea of gobbledy-goo! Man, the twists and turns in this episode...

And finally, at the very top, you can see the shadow of Thomas himself. CLEARLY the cutest little boy ever, yes?

playing halloween

2007-10-31T18:49:00.000-06:00

Mommy came home tonight and reminded 2-1/2 year old Thomas that his cousin would be over very soon.

Excitedly, he turned to me and announced, "Cody's comin' to my house!"

I asked, "What are you and Cody going to do tonight?"

His response? "We're gonna play Halloween!"

traumatized

2007-10-31T18:42:00.000-06:00

I knew that working for Mr. V was horrifying, but I hadn't realized that it so traumatized me that I haven't posted in over nine months. To put it in perspective, Mrs. V got pregnant sometime after I worked there and already has the baby out and about. Those people? A whole, huge dramatic icky story. I've been working up the nerve to write about THAT since January. A little while longer won't kill me.

I'm actually here today to announce that I AM BACK! Starting tomorrow, November 1st, I will be posting regularly. I've been working for a family that I completely adore since February, and have months worth of cute to catch you up on. I'm going to get serious with this site and my others and have a real go at this writing thing. I miss it!

a job for now

2007-01-09T09:58:00.000-06:00

Mr. V's nanny wanted Thursday and Friday off, so I'm going to be working those days. Ten hour days. That should be a good amount of money. He didn't say how much he was going to pay me, but I'm not going to let him get away with anything less than $10/hr, preferably $12. That will work out to be $200-$240 for two days work. Not too shabby.

Mrs. V wants me to work a day this weekend, so that will be good too. Especially since she was asking about me before their nanny took the time off. I like the idea of babysitting as a first choice much better than being a substitute nanny.

These days will also give me a definite opinion on whether I actually want to work for them. With the hours I work, I'll be sitting in the worst rush-hour traffic both going-to and coming-home from work. Yuck! I'll probably be out of my house 12 hours each day. Hopefully not. We'll see.

Maybe some good will come of this. After all, the world's quirky ways pretty much guarantee that this will interfere with an actual job, since I agreed to it in advance. Things always happen like that.

a phone call

2007-01-09T09:14:00.000-06:00

Well, I got a voice mail last night. It seems our Mr. V would like me to work on Thursday and Friday, possibly the weekend too. I wonder if he means days or nights. I wonder if it will lead to something better.

It's Tuesday now. If I commit to working for him on Thursday and Friday, what are the odds that I'll get a new job between now and then? Not too high, I suppose. I do need money. And I have been wanting to watch that little boy.

I'm going to go call him back. Right now. Wish me luck.

hunting for a job

2007-01-05T16:56:00.000-06:00

I haven't heard anything back from Mr. V. I need a job. At the very least, I need to make 2 more job contacts this week for my unemployment benefits. What to do?

I've avoided posting for a job on the site where I found my last job, simply because 1) my former employer is searching for a new nanny on that site already, and 2) last time I posted there, I had a job two days later.

Number 2 might not seem like a bad thing, but it kinda is. See, I'm a very loyal person. Meaning, if you hire me, I'm not going to go running off to accept another job, even if it's much better. And I just don't know if I'm ready to commit to someone. Plus, I'm still having mixed feelings about the whole nannying thing.

So should I just go get a crap non-nanny job and wait it out until I find a great family to work with? I've almost convinced myself that this is the way to go. Not quite, but almost.

Another problem is my wardrobe. I have the wardrobe of a nanny. NOT a professional wardrobe. This means that I can't really apply for an office job, since I would have two different outfits to alternate. Not very impressive.

I don't want a boring job! One of the best things about being a nanny is not being cooped up in an office. I want something casual...but well-paying. I love watching kids. I love doing crafts. I love to write. I love to bake. Someone hire me to be creative!

I know you're out there, perfect job. Present yourself.

can't stop dreaming about you

2007-01-02T17:10:00.000-06:00

New dreams about the Q's, straight from my head to your eyes:

I receive a letter from Mr. Q saying that I need to give them $122 from that time I lost some of their money, because it really is my fault (DREAM ONLY, never happened). It had a few other items on the list that I owed them for. I responded with a letter demanding better severance and reimbursement for gas and other things I bought for their kids. It felt great to write it. Then I woke up.
I was hanging out at the coolest arcade/game center EVER (it was fictional, unfortunately, and I lack the money to open one up for real, even though it would be amazing and everyone would love it) and ran into the 9-year old Q boy - we'll call him Damon Q from now on. I entered the game room that he was playing in and joined his Dance Dance Revolution game. It was much like when Bobby Hill plays in Japan, with the same songs and all. He was excited to see me and I was going to hug him when the music started. Turns out I suck at dancing, so I just spun around in circles on one foot...there's a name for this, but I don't know what it is. But trust me, I was cool. Then I woke up.

Please stop haunting my dreams.

two zero zero seven

2007-01-01T15:51:00.000-06:00

Here's to a great 2007 - may it be even better than the last year (and especially better than the last two weeks).

Happy New Year!

the good thing about being unemployed

2006-12-31T00:16:00.000-06:00

I've got tons of hours available to clean and organize my house! Yay! I've done so much stuff in the past few days that it's getting pretty unrecognizable around here. I get startled every time I walk into the living room.

Oh wait...I would have been off work this week anyway and would have had the same amount of time to clean as I do now...and a job to go back to on Tuesday. Hrm.

it wouldn't work, part 2 - maybe it would

2006-12-29T22:27:00.000-06:00

Last night Husband got a phone call from Mr. V.

Among other unrelated things, he said, "Tell your wife we were very impressed with her," and, "You are a very lucky man."

Husband couldn't stop talking about it. He said Mr. V put a lot of emphasis on very and repeated the statement numerous times. (Fun with italics, much?)

So last night I stayed up thinking about it, and why I thought it wouldn't work, and how it could possibly work. He'll have to work with me on the money aspect, but I think I can use math and logic to make him see why I deserve much more than he initially offered. I think we can come to a reasonable agreement.

Oh, except for the fact that he has a nanny right now and has not actually offered me a job yet. He doesn't think that the current nanny is the best fit for them. She also didn't show up for work that day and didn't call in until 4 pm. (?!?!?) He said at my interview that "the timing is almost perfect." That's okay, because I wouldn't want someone else to be rushed out like I was, and I don't think he's the type to do that. In fact, he was horrified when I explained how I was let go from my last job. So we'll see. I have been waiting 5 years to work for these people...what's a little while longer?

Obviously, I'm feeling much better than I was the other night, which is good. I hate feeling all down and blah. I'm trying to ban negativity from my life. Well, reduce it, at least. Baby steps.

dreaming of my q kids

2006-12-28T16:51:00.000-06:00

I had a dream last night that was all over the place. Before it ended with people trying to kill me, I was sitting on a bench somewhere. My youngest Q family boy, age 6, came up to me wearing a very puffy sweater and asked, "Why did you leave us?" Heart breaking, I said that his parents told me to leave. "Yeah, but why can't you just be our nanny anymore?" Oh, sob! My heart still hurts thinking about it, and it never even happened!

The night before that I dreamed that I was in the Q family kitchen. I saw a piece of paper where they had been evaluating all the new people they were interviewing. I saw one of the notes that said, "JJ really likes this one!" and I was so sad. That's all I remember of that dream. I did find it quite interesting that my dream used a fake name for this little boy, the same one from the other dream I just described. So I suppose now my old 6-year old has the pseudonym JJ Q. It'll do.

I'm going to have to call Mrs. Q after their vacation. I know I have to. I don't want to see the parents, but I have to see the kids again. I never got to say good-bye. They never got to say good-bye. How can you put a person in your kids' lives for two years and then pull them out without warning, without a chance to say good-bye? Those kids loved me, and I loved them. It's just not right.

silly pandas!

2006-12-28T00:14:00.000-06:00

Now, why can't they be hiring a nanny for these guys?

venting

2006-12-28T00:02:00.000-06:00

You know what? Screw you, Mr. Q! On top of all the other reasons why what you did to me sucked, I need to throw out one more.

I'm tired of being a nanny.

You were supposed to be my last job. I wanted that job for one more year, and then I was going to go on to bigger and better things, though I have no earthly clue what those things were going to be. Now I'm sitting here searching for a job and I feel like crying. I don't want another nanny job. I don't want to start over with a new family, trying desperately not to fall in love with more kids that I can't keep. I want a break from kids before I get completely burned out. I want a chance to recover before I ever maybe have one of my own. I don't want my own child to feel like just another job to me - the last in a long succession of children that I've raised. We're not going to talk about having a kid for 7 more years, but I'd like to have at least a 5 year no-kid break before that time. Before it goes from being my full-time JOB to my full-time LIFE.

So what to do now? Being a nanny is what I'm good at. I know I'm good at it. One of the best. I have a distinct edge over other job candidates, which I don't have in any other industry. Plus, you get to be cooped up inside a giant house instead of cooped up inside a small office. I know I need to suck it up and do this one last time. I know I will end up doing it again. I'll be looking for high-end nanny jobs first thing tomorrow.

But right now, I just feel so damn tired...

it wouldn't work, part 1

2006-12-27T13:10:00.000-06:00

I'm sorry, Mr. V. I've wanted to be your nanny for years before you ever had a kid, years before I met you. We met last night. I really like you and Mrs. V. The baby is beyond adorable. I would gladly babysit for you anytime, or even do the overnights when you're both working.

What I can't do is take a job knowing that I would have 8 weeks of unpaid time off every year. Two months a year of not working while you vacation. That's over $3000 a year gone. I just can't afford it. You're interested in traveling with the nanny at least some of those weeks? That's great! But then I think about living two months out of the year without my husband and I know I just can't. You're newlyweds too. I know you'd understand.

an interview already?

2006-12-26T19:15:00.000-06:00

Always before, I've had to wait months between jobs before I ever found a good lead that lead to an actual interview.

I have never gone on a job interview and not gotten the job.

Five years ago, when my husband started his current job, one of his first clients was Mr. V, a very wealthy man. I wished he had a family so I could be his nanny. Some time after that, Mr. V got married. I wished they would have a baby so I could be their nanny. Years later, I lost my job a week before Christmas. My husband tells me he knows of a family that is looking for a nanny; a very well-off family that is on vacation until after Christmas. I thought nothing else of it. A few days later, I ask who was hiring. To my shock and surprise, it is Mr. and Mrs. V, who seem to have a bouncing baby boy now.

This afternoon, the day after Christmas, my husband called me. Mr. V would like me to come interview tonight at 7:30. Then he would like me to watch the baby a couple nights this week, paid, to see if we all get along. Call first to make sure Mrs. V is home from work. Oh, and bring my resume. Resume? Hmm...haven't needed one of those in a few years. A few stressful hours later, I have a pretty good-looking resume and am counting down the minutes to a job interview.

I have never gone on a job interview and not gotten the job. Never. Must stop worrying...

nice to nanny

2006-12-26T12:42:00.000-06:00

It's nice to be a nanny.
Be nice to your nanny.
Sometimes, it's not so nice to be a nanny.
Sometimes, people are not so nice to their nanny.

I've been a nanny for 6 years now. Before that, I babysat and worked as a summer nanny for many, many years. I'm 25 years old. I thought my most recent nanny job would be the last one before I moved on to something else. Of course, I also thought it would last well into next year or longer. I did not expect to be laid off one week before Christmas.

I was so excited about Christmas this year! It was going to be my 3rd Christmas with this family and I was finally in a place where I had enough money to buy the kids great gifts. My previous Christmas gifts from the family were very generous, with gift cards tucked in as well, so I was really looking forward to seeing what I got this year.

Maybe I should have suspected something was up when I was asked to wrap all the presents for other people who didn't matter much. Well, maybe not quite at that point. But when I received some of those exact same presents for my birthday, I definitely should have started suspecting, at the very least, that I didn't matter very much. But then, the next week, Mrs Q told me I was a lifesaver and asked what she would do without me. For the first time in years, I stopped worrying that I would lose my job out-of-the-blue (more on those stories later). I relaxed. Two weeks later, I was gone.