I ought to just pretend that I'm one too. I mean, who would be crazy enough to spend time with their own kids? Alright, this is a long story and I'm getting ahead of myself.
Everyone told me that when I had kids of my own I would meet other parents, you know, make friends with my kids' friends' parents. Well, that's happened to a large extent. But there's a growing numbers of parents with nannies to schedule and supervise their children's playdates, at home, at the park, at another's home.
And I got my nose out of joint the first couple of times with the nanny on playdates, especially when she has other children in tow.
Like the grandmothery lady at the country club last Saturday.
She called herself a "babysitter" but she brought two brothers to their morning tennis lesson, lunch out afterwards and would drop them at the older one's birthday party before calling it a day and returning home to her waiting husband. As she's telling me her life story, totalling thirteen years of caring for others' children after raising her own, she rocked my Ella to sleep. (I almost told her, "You're hired!"). I could clearly see how she makes her living ... by making herself indispensable!
Next time you spot young children out with Grandma, think again! It could be the empty nester nanny!
The real icing was lunch out with Kenny on Friday at the trendy JavaMoon Cafe. A first for both of us ... and the food was out of this world ... well, it was better than I expected. Jeff had lunch there once too and said the place was full of ladies spending their husband's money. Yeah, that was my thought, too. The couple next to us said nothing to dispel that impression.
They discussed (loudly) their nannies and their day care arrangements and their swim clubs and their vacations. The one felt guilty about putting her four kids in day care, presumably for the summer. But the other supported her by observing that she had greater management over her free time ... she could go out to lunch like this!
Everyone needs a break I guess. I had mine in the fall before Ella came. Nannies are people too and wouldn't I rather converse with someone with first-hand familiarity with children?! Sometimes I think the less time my kids spend around me the better for them. But it's no good having strangers at the end of it all either.
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