Ms McLaughlin and Kraus have joined forces to write a fictionalized account of their experiences working as nannies to wealthy families in New York.
In this story, it is specifically nannies for families in which only the father works at a paying job. The wife does non-paying, but very important charity work and social events with other women like herself. Neither parent is actually interested in actually being a parent. They have a child and pay others to take care of the raising of the child.
The story is interesting and well told, but so much is so very unbelievable, Im not sure that Im willing to apply the trust is stranger than fiction mantra. I did enjoy reading it, but it really feels like both authors pulled only the most extreme eccentricities of working for these women and it would appear it is the wives that they work for, the fathers are pretty much relegated to being money machines.
One disappointment is their ability to give the family and other characters in the story actual names the main characters name is always Nanny. Even her boyfriend calls her Nanny. I assume they were attempt a writing ploy to show how truly non-entity she was when working as the nanny but, based on conversations with her family and friends, they do not see her as a non-entity.
I was also frustrated that the main character only wanted to work about 10 hours per week for this family, but was obviously doing more like 30 and would never just say no. As if there are no other jobs in New York than this one position that would give her the hours that she needed to make the money that she needed. Nanny does need the income, but she is obviously able to find way more hours than she was hired to work to accommodate this family that I think she would have been better served working a consistent 20 hours per week at the worst Wal-Mart store in the country. It was very frustrating to me that she wouldnt just quit.
But, I understood why she didnt want to quit shed developed an attachment to the child and recognized that he was desperate for attention. So desperate that he wore his fathers business card attached to his clothing at all times. It was obvious she thought that if she was not there, this poor little boy would suffer immensely.
Overall, an interesting book.
In this story, it is specifically nannies for families in which only the father works at a paying job. The wife does non-paying, but very important charity work and social events with other women like herself. Neither parent is actually interested in actually being a parent. They have a child and pay others to take care of the raising of the child.
The story is interesting and well told, but so much is so very unbelievable, Im not sure that Im willing to apply the trust is stranger than fiction mantra. I did enjoy reading it, but it really feels like both authors pulled only the most extreme eccentricities of working for these women and it would appear it is the wives that they work for, the fathers are pretty much relegated to being money machines.
One disappointment is their ability to give the family and other characters in the story actual names the main characters name is always Nanny. Even her boyfriend calls her Nanny. I assume they were attempt a writing ploy to show how truly non-entity she was when working as the nanny but, based on conversations with her family and friends, they do not see her as a non-entity.
I was also frustrated that the main character only wanted to work about 10 hours per week for this family, but was obviously doing more like 30 and would never just say no. As if there are no other jobs in New York than this one position that would give her the hours that she needed to make the money that she needed. Nanny does need the income, but she is obviously able to find way more hours than she was hired to work to accommodate this family that I think she would have been better served working a consistent 20 hours per week at the worst Wal-Mart store in the country. It was very frustrating to me that she wouldnt just quit.
But, I understood why she didnt want to quit shed developed an attachment to the child and recognized that he was desperate for attention. So desperate that he wore his fathers business card attached to his clothing at all times. It was obvious she thought that if she was not there, this poor little boy would suffer immensely.
Overall, an interesting book.
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