Nanny Adventures

The family I am with currently lives in reality. They don’t sugar coat things for their kids really. Which is such a nice breath of fresh air.  We have meshed so well together over the past several months that I have been here.   I have actually been interested in the things they do, what they listen to on the radio and watch on television. I actually do things after hours and on the weekend with them.  So knowing  me you know this rarely happens.

Their old nanny was here for 5-6 years and I believe the previous one was here for like 9 or 10 years.  So they have a great track record with nannies.  Kidlet #1 has commented at times that I nag him about doing things.  Sure I nag him about cleaning his room, putting his dishes in the dishwasher and so forth.  Isn’t that a nanny’s job?   I also tell him that his future girlfriend or wife will want him to put his dishes away and have a clean room.  They don’t want a messy person.   Kidlet #1 also listens to a vast array of music.  From Taylor Swift, Kanye West, Ashanti, Flo Rida to Brittney Spears. Yes Brittany Spears!  I have spent many a day in the car listening to her cd.  I almost had it memorized. Thankfully we switched to Taylor Swift and Flo Rida.   I even like Flo Rida’s “Low” song.  I call it the apple bottom jeans song.  

Kidlet #2 and I get along well.  She doesn’t mention anything really.  I am a saint this week, because I found her school id and keys that she had lost during Spring Break.

Kidlet #3 and I have our days of good and bad. Overall though we get along pretty good.  He has been the child who has been shuffled to his older siblings sports/activities etc. He isn’t into sports like his siblings are. He is more into arts, music and things of that nature. I have gotten him into a great acting school here in the area. He is loving it.  He really is a great story teller and facial expression person.  He takes piano as well.  He is starting up guitar now too.

So the whole background to this comparison of nannies was brought on by something said to me by Kidlet #3.   We were sitting at the dinner table eating a snack or dinner, can’t remember which, when he said that he really liked me as his nanny. He said that I was his favorite nanny so far. This really took me by surprise. He and I bicker bc I give him boundaries and hold him accountable for his actions when he doesn’t follow through.  He gets mad at me when I tell him we have to clean his room.  You can’t even walk on it bc of all the clothes and stuff on the ground.  But somehow he forgives me for this nagging I give him for picking up his dirty socks, clothes off the floor and him practicing piano.    He was telling me that his old nanny was very strict with him.  But I am mellow and kind. (I was laughing in my head–mellow??????)  I told him “Thank You”  He has mentioned a lot that he misses the old nanny.  I tell him that I understand that he misses her. She was with him for a long time.  He also was telling me how I have been the most inspirational nanny he has had.  I asked him what he meant by that.  He said that I inspired him to want a parakeet because of my parakeet, Lemongrass.  He said if it was not for me and him reading my parakeet books, he would still be wanting a dog.

So I guess being a “tough love” nanny really does win in the hearts of kids.

Moral: Just because you are there to make sure kids follow rules and boundaries etc doesn’t mean that you have to a strict person doing it and you too can be “mellow and kind”  even in the eyes of a pre teen.  :)   But at the end of the day, the room was cleaned and the dishes were in the dishwasher