The Nanny Diaries
I’ve started this blog without any sort of textual explanation for what I’m doing here, for what I intend to share with you. There are several domains of my life that I plan to explore on this blog, but I’m going to start with my job because it’s the one I’ve already blogged about the most.
I am a full-time nanny for two absolutely amazing children, Kai and Amélie. I know that every parent and caregiver says the same thing - “No, really, they’re absolutely amazing. The most adorable children you’ve ever seen!” - but when I say it I mean it and you can just forget all the rest. (And I invite all of you to just try and prove me wrong.)
I’ve known Kai and Amélie for two years now, since just a few days before Kai was diagnosed with juvenile diabetes. As one of his primary caregivers I was trained in diabetes care and have been continuing my education through practice ever since. With each year that passes his diabetes becomes easier to control and he leads the life of a perfectly normal seven-year-old boy.
I spend 7-10 hours per day with Kai and Amélie, 5 days per week. We like dancing, coloring, story time, swimming, pepperoni and pineapple pizza, making things with our hands, imagining, reading, playing on the swing set and telling stories. We don’t like bugs, walking long distances, cuts, scrapes or bumps, scary things, stomachaches, wearing shoes, losing at games or rain.
Our common likes/dislikes have made for close tie at our new favorite game, which I like to call “Raise your hand if…”
The game goes a little like this:
KAI: Raise your hand if you like strawberries!
(We all raise our hands.)
KAI: Okay. I’m in first Amélie is in second, and Elizabeth is in third. Okay, Elizabeth? You’re losing.
I don’t know what the scoring is based on, but I’ve gotten used to losing and I trust Kai.
Like any group of close friends, we have our ups and downs. You’ll probably see mostly the ups on this blog, because (a) I’m usually not inspired to write about the downs and (b) because I like to pretend that we’re totally perfect. Nonetheless, I hope someone out there reads this and learns something about what it means to be a full-time nanny, or that someone who knows better that I do will be inspired to share their knowledge with me.
I love my job, but it certainly doesn’t help my grown-up vs. child dilemma. I spend my days filling in coloring books and eating peanut butter and honey sandwiches. I, too, throw a little tantrum when it rains and we can’t go to the pool. Conversely, my job puts me in a position of power, a position that carries responsibility to encourage and punish, to affirm and deny. I’m also fairly sure that Kai and Amélie will be responsible for a few gray hairs. So what am I?
