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7 nannies who work for the rich and powerful share the worst things they've ever been asked to do on the job
7 nannies who work for the rich and powerful share the worst things they've ever been asked to do on the job
Taylor Nicole RogersNov 4, 2019, 21:57 IST
Jessica Peterson/Getty Images
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Business Insider spoke to nannies who work for wealthy families across the United States to find out what their jobs are really like.
As it turns out, the job isn't always as glamorous as it may seem.
Several of the nannies interviewed were asked to do things well beyond their job descriptions - like cleaning out a rat's nest or sorting M&Ms by hand.
Many elite nannies get to travel the world for free in addition to getting paid as much as $150,000, but the job's high personal costs cause many to change careers after three to five years, Katie Provinziano, the managing director of Los Angeles staffing agency Westside Nannies, told Business Insider.
Traveling all over the world to care for the children of the rich and powerful may seem like a glamorous job, but it's not as easy as it looks, seven nannies who work for wealthy families across the US told Business Insider.
The nannies agreed that the perks and pay were unparalleled. Elite nannies can make up to $150,000 with full benefits, according to Katie Provinziano, the managing director of Los Angeles staffing agency Westside Nannies - but the costs are steep too. As a result, many elite nannies change careers after three to five years, Provinziano told Business Insider.
Keep reading to learn more about what it's really like to be an elite nanny.
Note: Business Insider was able to verify each nanny's identity, but we refrained from publishing some of their full names to protect their privacy.
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Do you nanny for a wealthy family and have a story to share? Contact the reporter via encrypted messaging app Signal at +1 (646) 768-4725 using a non-work phone, email at trogers@businessinsider.com, or Twitter DM at @TaylorNRogers. (PR pitches by email only, please.)
Professional nanny Stephanie Felzenberg once had to work through a hurricane.
There was "flooding in house and no power for two weeks during the hurricane," Felzenberg told Business Insider.
Felzenberg was hired through an agency to care for the children of executives in Manhattan. Felzenberg served as the parent's personal assistant, housekeeper, and chef, she told Business Insider.
"I make it look easy, but it's not," Felzenberg said.
One former nanny said the family made whoever was on the overnight shift sleep in a closet.
"This was a very wealthy family but they had their overnight help sleep in a storage room that was not even on a proper bed," the former nanny told Business Insider. "It was like a couch with plastic wrap on it, and the bathroom was the shared bathroom in the kid's playroom. I think if you're going out of your way to hire someone to sleep overnight, wake up early and take care of your kids, you could at least provide some kind of bed."
The family lived in a large apartment in New York City's Upper East Side, the former nanny told Business Insider. The children's father was an executive at an investment banking firm, and hired multiple cooks and part-time nannies to help the family. The nanny who spoke to Business Insider found the job through Care.com to supplement her salary from her day job.
One elite nanny said she had to manually clear out a toddler's bowels.
"When the baby was about a year old, I stayed the night while the parents were out of town," the nanny told Business Insider. "The baby was screaming in pain the whole night from constipation. At about 3 in the morning, I put on a glove and manually dis-impacted his bowels trying to make him more comfortable. I got about two hours of sleep that night."
The nanny was hired through an agency after posting her resume on Care.com, they told Business Insider. The father was the CEO of a Durham, North Carolina based company and the mother was a doctor.
Frequent "poop disasters" also plagued another elite nanny based in Missouri.
"They didn't ask me to do it, but one of the poop disasters involved poop allllll over the carpet, walls, crib, stuffed animals, etc," the nanny told Business Insider. "I cleaned it all up before they got home."
Keeping the family's house clean was part of this nanny's daily responsibilities, in addition to grocery shopping for the family, and entertaining the children, the nanny told Business Insider.
One Chicago-based nanny had an uncomfortable situation with a pizza delivery guy and a $100 bill.
"One time I was left a $100 bill to order dinner while the parents were at a charity fundraiser," the nanny told Business Insider. "When the delivery guy arrived, he couldn't break the $100. We didn't know what to do, so we kinda stood there for a while, trying to contact the parents and his store. Eventually, the store had him return to his route and the mom had to call the store later to charge her card."
One family asked their nanny to clean out a rat's nest by herself.
It was the single most extreme thing this nanny was ever asked by a family to do, the nanny told Business Insider.
Another nanny told Business Insider she spent "back-breaking hours" sorting M&Ms by color, according to a child's preferences.
The nanny, named Genevieve, regularly picked out the child's two favorite colors from "monstrous" bags of M&Ms and put them in ziplock bags to have on hand whenever he wanted candy, she told Business Insider.
