My wife jokes that she was the only mother on our cul de sac who didn’t have a Nanny to raise our kids.
Most families were very secretive about having nannies until the last decade. Our sons and a all most son often informed us about the nannies. The nannies often were a secret caste of people.
One woman actually developed a business of training/hiring Nannies.
One of the families was/is a good Catholic family with 6 kids including 2 sets of twins. The mother plays tennis and is involved heavily in the Catholic schools her kids go to.
An interesting one was a former marine gunny, who was a nanny for 3 boys. The family mother couldn’t handle the 3 sons. So her traveling husband hired the gunny to be a male Nanny. The two older sons are now successful as adults, and the middle one and I became friends when he became an adult. The younger one had mental developmental problems and was a physical fitness nut. He now lives with his divorced mother in a beach town and helps her to run a local gym and fitness classes.
One woman, a widow, who is our age has severe physical problems and her 3 daughters have hired two of their former nannies to watch her basically 24/7. The nannies live in the Mother’s home and share the care and also do real outside Nanny work that they share. They are like family with the mother and adult daughters.
Most of the so called “freed” mothers played tennis or golf and often were deeply involved in big time charities as fund raisers and unpaid managers.
“They are like family with the mother and adult daughters.”
My wife’s brother married into an old-line Texas family.
They have a full time live-in ‘maid’ and the ‘maid’s’ mother worked for the sister-in-law’s mother... going back many generations. They are deeply connected beyond an employer/employee relationship.
Everyone speaks Spanish and English, not from school but learned it beginning at birth or before.
They say the ‘maid’ and her family are wealthy in their own right, hard work, and successful investments. The ‘maid’s’ children are all college graduates.
By chance is the Gunny/nanny available? Our grandson age four is looking to be a handful they may need reinforcements.
I was the morning childcare person until an evil car ran me over on my bicycle, 20 days hospital, and months of PT.
So I was replaced.