How to Become a Nanny for a Rich Family
Forget the money and perks: Existence a nanny for the super-rich is not the dream task it seems
If you could brand $164,000 a twelvemonth in a job that involved luxury cars, travel and rent-free living, you'd consider it, right?
Reviews and recommendations are unbiased and products are independently selected. Postmedia may earn an affiliate commission from purchases made through links on this page.
Past Rebecca Manning Reid
Wanted Supernanny. Must accept gone to Oxbridge, be able to ski, speak Standard mandarin and handle a Porsche… Salary £100,000+
The salary sounds like a dream come up true, only as Rebecca Reid constitute out, nannying for the super-rich isn't as fulfilling as it starting time seems.
If you could make £100,000 ($164,000 Cdn.) a year in a job that involved luxury cars, travel and rent-gratuitous living, you'd consider it, right?
That was the consensus when an advertisement for a nanny made the headlines this week. The chore, posted on childcare.co.great britain by an unnamed adult female, was to care for four homeschooled children who live between London, Barbados, Greatcoat Town and Atlanta. The successful candidate would also have admission to the family unit's suite of cars (Porsche, Range Rover, Maserati) and meals cooked past a Michelin-starred chef.
Information technology sounded too adept to be truthful.
But where, once, childcare for the smart set conjured up images of Mary Poppins and required little more than the power to wipe snotty noses, the modern "supernanny" has a much more enervating office. Wait beyond the perks, and a different story emerges. The new nanny must, continued the advertizement, have a degree in kid psychology, self-defence training and be "perfect" in every way.
Herein lies the truth: potato printing just won't cut it. The super-rich desire high-flying supernannies; think MSc from Oxbridge, the ability to ski, horse ride and successfully coach little Amelia or Otto ahead of school archway exams.
When Gwyneth Paltrow advertised for just such a nanny in 2011, the successful candidate needed to possess a classical teaching, be fluent in at least three languages, play two instruments, be passionate about sailing and tennis, and enjoy art history or martial arts. The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge, meanwhile, hired a coveted graduate of prestigious nanny school Norland College in Bath, for Prince George.
Unless your CV boasts an impressive range of skills, you won't stand a adventure. Don't know Mandarin? Don't bother applying.
Providing you lot are qualified, however, you could be forgiven for thinking a chore similar this might be a skilful way to travel and prepare yourself up financially. But at that place is no money in the world that could compel me to go back to working for the super-rich.
I fell into nannying in 2010, when I decided to have an impromptu gap year after my (better than expected) A-level results and moved to London to work. "Find a nice, sensible family unit in Clapham," counselled my mother. But I wanted to see how the 0.01 per cent lived.
My commencement interview was at a w London mansion that looked like a hotel. The lady of the house was a glamorous Russian-Brit with Victoria Beckham's waistline and pneumatic puppet job. When she said ane of my morning duties would be to straighten her six-yr-one-time daughter's hair, I laughed. She was not joking. The role would as well include consulting on low-GI meals, and accompanying their chauffeur to schoolhouse. Neither she nor her husband could exist woken before 10am. After school, in that location would be Kumon maths and both children had personal trainers. It seemed ludicrous, merely among this set it is perfectly normal. As last year's Aqueduct 4 documentary Too Posh to Parent revealed, £1,000-an-hour Lego therapists and potty preparation services are all on the cards.
Then she showed me the nanny'southward room. Information technology had an ironing board-like bed and confined on the window. I got a call the next mean solar day saying that she was distressing, merely they were going with a girl who had only got an MA from Oxford.
A few weeks subsequently, I found a chore looking afterward ii children in a Chelsea boondocks house. I was thrilled simply rapidly realized that, alongside my nannying duties, I was also a prize.
"Rebecca is English," I heard my employers say, similar I was that season's It-bag. In the playground at one of London's nigh exclusive prep schools, I noticed more than and more "naice" English language girls with prestigious degrees. After all, "our nanny was at Balliol" is a great line to drib at a dinner party.
You might be wondering why someone with an Oxbridge degree would want to relegate themselves to "staff". But even the ability to speak 3 languages doesn't brand you allowed to the lure of bonuses, designer handbags as thank-yous gifts and apply of the private jet. Paola Diana, CEO of exclusive recruitment company Nanny & Butler, has called it a "magical lifestyle. It's a dream come true. They are merely girls in their twenties."
That couldn't be farther from my experience. Perhaps things were exacerbated past working for parents who were desperately trying to get their daughter into a prestigious school. I would come abode to the father bellowing, "Your favourite music is Peer Gynt, not sodding Rihanna!" I was told not to speak virtually annihilation cultural or political, lest I pass on inaccurate information and scupper her academic career.
They were also surprisingly tight. I had known it would be hard piece of work, just hoped for some kickbacks. Instead, I institute myself scolded for boiling pans of h2o on the gas hob, rather than using the kettle. And, after hand-making the children craven nuggets using chocolate-brown breadcrumbs, the mother sniped: "It would have been far cheaper to buy Birds Eye."
At that place is no money in the earth that could compel me to get dorsum to working for the super-rich
Other nannies for the super-rich have had like experiences. Sarah*, 28, said: "I've worked for billionaires who will put the family unit in first class and have me sit down in economic system. I'll be back and forth the entire flight checking on the kids. They also tell you off for having the heating on in your nanny flat, or inquire you lot to store from the economy section of the supermarket for your own nutrient."
Sascha*, 24, worked as a nanny for a super-rich family unit during her holidays from Durham University. "They spent the summer away," she says. "The wife and children would stay the unabridged time, and the husband would fly in at weekends. Essentially my chore was to help them forget they had kids. But I wasn't allowed to use Tv set or iPads; we had to play 'learning games'. I think their parents liked that I was at a good university, as if it was going to rub off. That said, the dad also liked it when I wore a bikini."
A Norland-graduate in her twenties, who declined to exist named, told me: "For some families, my having gone to boarding schoolhouse is a plus; they see it as prestigious. But if they are also interested, that can be a bad sign. A nanny can be a condition symbol. I tin can't disembalm how much I earn but information technology is extremely generous, especially compared to others my historic period. My task involves a lot of travel and I can become two weeks without a 24-hour interval off. But I honey the family unit I work for. Some of the ones I did trial placements with, treated me like I wasn't human being. They wanted me to be invisible when they were with the children – but always exist on call. Many want you to promise not to take your own life."
In retrospect, it seems miraculous that I lasted half-dozen months earlier leaving in the wake of a row almost my refusal to constantly work overtime without notice.
Years later on, when I needed a task to support myself through my MA, I remembered my mother's communication. I constitute a dainty, sensible family to nanny for; no pretending to love opera, no land house and no SW1 postcode. I was unquestionably happier.
Best of luck to whoever ends up getting that £100,000 a year job. I'm afraid to say, I think they're going to need it.
* Some names have been changed
Source: https://nationalpost.com/life/forget-the-money-and-perks-being-a-nanny-for-the-super-rich-is-not-the-dream-job-it-seems
0 Response to "How to Become a Nanny for a Rich Family"
Post a Comment