20 to 40: Meet NannyP…

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Meet Nanny P…

Or what I like to refer to as the “crazy hair days”! (at least these early days!)

I’m very careful about showing pictures of other people though I would love to show a ton of shots of the various wonderful families that I’ve worked for over the years, instead you get this one!

It perfectly takes me back to that wonderful summer that pretty much started my nanny career. This was taken in the Hamptons of Long Island NY the summer after my freshman year at Luther College.

I had gotten this great summer job through a professor at college. It was an absolute blast. I would pack up the kiddos with food, toys and swim gear in the morning and we’d head to the private beach club for the day!

How funny does this sound? Often at the beach you would first see the row of children playing, then the nannies right behind them, THEN the moms back further still! What a crack-up! Those were good days. I became friends with so many nannies, au pairs and life guards! During our time off, we would explore the Hamptons, head into the city and try not to get in too much trouble!

I had worked my first real nanny job a few years prior to this. My cousin lived in Columbia, MD and my aunt had helped me to get a live-in position there for the summer. It was my first real glimpse into this world and at that time because of my age, I was really more of a mother’s helper than an official nanny.

After the great summer in the Hamptons, it was very difficult to return to college in small town Iowa.  While I had been in New York, I connected with a nanny agency there and made the decisions to look for full-time work as a nanny. I had every intention of finding something that would also allow me to continue working towards completion of my degree. (which I did accomplish eventually)

From there, I did a 2 week stint for someone REALLY famous in Connecticut. I won’t mention names but I will say that this job was NOT fun! Interesting, but not nice!

I decided that I wanted to be a California girl and headed out to Palm Springs area to meet up with a classmate from high school. I then began a search and meeting with agencies in the Los Angeles/Beverly Hills area as well as further south in San Diego.

I won’t bore you with the details of every family. I’ll say that I worked in San Diego (Del Mar area) and San Francisco/Marin for the next 12+ years! There were mostly awesome families with a bit of craziness thrown in!

I’ve worked 8 major jobs with different families. Most of the children were age 3 or older when I started and I’m still close with a few of the families to this day. One of the girls I used to take care of (She was in high school at the time and I was really more of a chauffeur) just got married last summer! Recently I’ve reconnected with a few others via Facebook which has been SO fun!

My living arrangements varied with the last position in beautiful Marin County where I lived in a private guest house. (There were deer outside my window in the mornings!)

I say now as I am turning 40 that perhaps this WAS my child rearing days! 😉

I don’t know really. I do love children AND I’m thankful that I am also not a 39 yr old – soon to be 40 woman who is yearning for children of her own.  We will see what the future will bring…

I definitely have it in me to be a great parent/wife/home maker. I have taken care of whole families from running the house/errands/appointments/kids schedules to ironing dad’s work shirts.

A domestic goddess is in me for sure! 😉

P.S. Here is one of my other projects in the works!
NannyP.com