Friday

Does this ad sound familiar?

Update 8/29/08
Even MSNBC is covering this now!

8/28/08...
“My kids are a pain,” read the opening line of her Craigslist solicitation for a live-in nanny, and she specified what part of her body it was that her kids — all four of them — pained her most, each in his or her particular 12- , 9- or 6-year-old twin way.

“Please help me,” she added.

The listing, posted last week, was by turns self-effacing, self-justifying and extremely revelatory. It read as a participant’s critique of a particular strain of moneyed-class hyper-parenting that dominates in certain reaches of New York, as well as a desperate request for a certain kind of masochist.

“I am not looking for Supernanny,” it read. “I don’t want someone who has a lot of theories on the right way to raise kids.” And: “If you are fundamentally unhappy with your life, you will be more unhappy if you take this job.” More: “If you suspect all wealthy women are frivolous, we are not for you. I do not want to hide my occasional Bergdorf shopping bag.”

(Continue reading Let’s Face It, This Isn’t a Job for Supernanny in the NY Times.)
Reported here first in CL-WTF.

18 comments:

UmassSlytherin said...

lmfao!!!!!
so basically this woman is not only a wacko but she is getting free pr for it.
unbelievable!!!!

Anonymous said...

The real wackos are the idiots who WANT to work for this lady.

Anonymous said...

absolute insanity!

Anonymous said...

This woman is a self-indulgent train wreck. She should be ashamed.

nannyinmanhattan said...

At least she was truthful about her "bad kids" and her "expectations" so the employee would have an idea of what she was getting into.
I think the nanny is the wack one though. lol!

chick said...

Any bets on how many weeks the new "nanny" will last? I think 6 weeks max.

Anonymous said...

I thought the ad was funny. She clearly is a comic writer and wanted to write something diffrent form the norm... and c'mon... we have ALL had those days when we think we are talking to walls with our kids. As far as PR goes... I doublt highly SHE sought the article in the NY Times out.. I am willing to bet the Times contacted her. It's a joke my friends. I am pretty sure she meant to be humourous... and unlike some employers-- honest. Give the gal a break!

Anonymous said...

“I met the oldest child, but not the others, which my mother said was crazy — to accept the job without meeting all the kids. So we’ll see.”

Yes, the nanny was crazy for taking the job without meeting all the kids.

But what about the other side of the story? Does anyone else think it's odd that the mother couldn't be bothered to introduce all her children to this woman before she was hired?

Granted the kids should not get the only votes but their opinions should matter, at least up to a point. The fact that their own mother doesn't seem to think so may help to partially explain why the family has been through ten nannies and why the kids are pains.

Anonymous said...

Who takes a job with a family that has gone through nine nannies in thirteen years, and without even meeting all the children?
The new nanny they hired has no previous nanny experience. Big surprise!
As a nanny who does, I would immediately pick up on the fact that the children's welfare is not this mom's priority, ergo it will be a miserable job.

Anonymous said...

why doesn't the mom do something about her pain in the @$$ kids instead of just complaining about them?

oh, imagine what the kids are going to think about this when they are young adults.

embarassing!

JUJu ( Vida a Bordo??) said...

Uau!! this AD was in the Brazilian news also, that was a big deal, lol, maybe the lady that put that AD knew that she was going to be famouse, lol!!!

Anonymous said...

Famous? More like infamous! LOL

Anonymous said...

Well, I'm surprised by this because I really thought the post was a fake. I didn't believe any mom would humiliate her kids like that.

I'm fascinated she chose to have 4 kids when she clearly is uninterested in raising them.

Anonymous said...
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
Anonymous said...

hollywood nanny,
and this is why those who decry FAKE on a post or submission really piss me off. I have traveled the US as a nanny. I have worked on both coasts, in Chicago and even in Houston, what I read here is for the most part tame.

Anonymous said...

Maybe the person who wrote the ad is a friend of Helaine Olens or worse yet that absolutely talentless hack of writer and Aunt Mommy extraordinairre, Holly Peterson. The ad belongs on a blog like this in a feature called WTF but outside that- how is it news for msnbc? How many US soldiers died in the month of August? What were their names?

Anonymous said...

This also won best of craigslist!

Anonymous said...

This mom is an attention hog. Who would write such and ad and then consent to be interviewed about and let the reporter take a photograph of the poor children.

Look at this!
http://www.nytimes.com/imagepages/2008/08/28/nyregion/28nanny_CA0.ready.html