THE NANNY DIARIES
"You should hear mama on the chapter of governesses:
Mary and I have had, I should think, a dozen at least in
our day; half of them detestable and the rest ridiculous
and all incubi-----were they not, mama?"
"My dearest, don't mention governesses; the word
make me nervous. I have suffered a martyrdom from
their incompetency and caprice; I thank Heaven I have
now done with them!"
---JANE EYRE
PART ONE (FALL)
"Hi, this is Alexis at the Parents League. I'm just calling to follow up on the uniform guidelines we sent over . . ." The blond woman volunteering behind the reception desk holds up a bejeweled finger, signalling me to wait while she continues on the phone. "Yes,well this year we'd really like to see all your girls in longer skirts, at least twenty inches. We're still getting complaints from the mothers at the boys' schools in the vicinity . . . Great. Good to hear it. Bye." With a grand gesture she cross the word "Spence" off her list of three items.
She returns her attention to me. "I'm sorry to keep you waiting. With the school year starting we're just crazed." She draws a big circle around the second items on her list, "paper towel." "Can I help you?" "I'm here to put up an ad for a nanny, but the bulletin board seems to have moved," I say, slightly confused as I've been advertising here seen I was thirteen.
"We had to take it down while the foyer was being painted and never got around to moving it back. Here, let me show you." She leads me to the central room, where mothers perch at Knoll desks fielding about the Private Schools. Before me sits the full range of Upper East Side diversity---half of the woman are dressed in Chanel suit and Manolo Blahniks, half are in six-hundred-dollar barn jackets, looking as if they might be asked to pitch an Aqua Scutum tent at any moment.
Alexis gestures to the bulletin board, which has displaced a Mary Cassatt propped against the wall. "It's all a bit disorganized at the moment," she says as another woman looks up from the floral arrangement she's rearranging nearby. "But don't worry. Tons of lovely girls come here to look for employment, so you shouldn't have any trouble finding someone." She raises her hand to her pearls."Don't you have a son at Buckley? You look so familiar. I'm Alexis----"
"Hi," I say. "I'm Nan. Actually, I took care of the Gleason girls. I think they lived next door to you."
She arches an eyebrow to give me a once-over. "Oh . . .Oh, Nanny, that's right," she confirms for herself, before retreating back to her desk.
I tune out the officious, creamy chatter of the women behind me to read the postings put up by other nannies also in search of employment
Babysitter need children
very like kids
Vacuums
YOU ARE READING
The nanny Diaries
HumorNan has a tricky relationship with her employer, Mrs. A non- existent relationship with Mr X. But she loves their little boy to pieces. In between looking after four-year-old Grayer and running a thousand errands for Mrs X, his rich, upr...
