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Toddler’s Personal Assistant: How Nannying for the 1% Taught Me About the Myths of Equality, Motherhood, and Upward Mobility in America

by Stephanie Kiser

Narrator Stephanie Kiser

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Length 7 hours 8 minutes

Language English

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Bookseller recommendation

“Ever wondered how a family with millions (or billions) to their name chooses to raise their kids? Or, more interestingly, how the complex network of nannies and home care workers that revolve around these families live and get paid? Kaiser’s memoir exposes the good, the bad, and the ugly of being a live-in nanny for the 1%, but this is more than just a tabloid-esque expose of the upper crust. Kaiser herself came from what she herself calls a 'white trash' family, with parents who were on-again-off-again for most of her childhood and never enough resources to support their family of five. The book details Kaiser’s decision to go into nannying as a way to pay off her massive student loan debt, eventually learning to love the kids she was being paid to care for, while coming to terms with the reality that it was slowly killing her dreams of being a writer or ever becoming a mother herself. This book is honest about wealth inequality, motherhood, and class divides in a manner that I found both entertaining and immensely refreshing. ”
— Megan • Off the Beaten Path

Summary

What are the lives of America's richest families really like? Their nannies see it all . . .

When Stephanie Kiser moves to New York City after college to pursue a career in writing, she quickly learns that her entry-level salary won't cover the cost of living. But there is one in-demand job that pays enough to allow Stephanie to stay in the city: nannying for the 1%. Desperate to escape the poverty of her own childhood, Stephanie falls into a job that hijacks her life for the next seven years: a glorified personal assistant to toddlers on Manhattan's Upper East Side.

At first, nannying seems like the perfect solution—the high pay covers Stephanie's bills, and she's surprised by how attached she becomes to the kids she cares for, even as she gasps over Prada baby onesies and preschools that cost more than her college tuition. But the grueling twelve-hour days leave her little time to see her friends, date, or pursue any creative projects that might lead to a more prestigious career. The allure of the seemingly-glamorous job begins to dull as Stephanie comes to understand more about what really happens behind the closed doors of million-dollar Park Avenue apartments—and that money doesn't guarantee happiness. Soon she will have to decide whether to stay with the children she's grown to love, or if there's something better out there.

Biography & Memoir Nonfiction Social Science