Helen Kirwan-Taylor is apparently Britain's answer to the NY Times' shop-and-call-it-work columnist Alex Kuczynski, if not exactly their Candace Bushnell [Oh well, everyone needs to dream]. She writes at length about everything from parties to decorating to shopping to remodelling--she complained that, what with all the renovations, and such, her Notting Hill neighborhood "might as well be Baghdad,".
But she also wrote about nannies. In her Daily Mail piece about how bored she is, she talks of practically begging her nannies to stay and put the kids to bed.
So it's actually fun--in a trainwreck kind of way, of course--to read about how much she hates all nannies and what a disaster they all are. I won't take away any of the pleasure by giving away the ending:
As soon as she moved in and it was time to pay her salary, she pointed out that 'babysitting wasn't included'.Did I say Candace Bushnell? I must have meant Caitlin Flanagan.Soon enough, she was in tears. She couldn't live in, she said, it was too difficult. We should have figured out by then that tears were just part of her grand manipulation scheme, but being pleasers, we found a rental flat. At this point, she had her own car, a flat in Notting Hill with a huge drawing room and several hours during the day to go to the gym. Still, she complained that it was all too much. It became quite clear that she hated me and the family (at least she was too fat to tempt my husband). When she finally did leave (not before writing my husband a poisonous note) we decided she was the last nanny we would employ.
And what was our solution? We now employ a Portuguese housekeeper who says 'no problem'.
The trouble with nannies [independent.co.uk via findarticles]
Sheesh...the things one can find to complain about when one has so much money, it can be used to line the baby's diapers. You are right, though, total trainwreck. I feel bad for the people who take her seriously!
Greg! I'm surprised you didn't take her to task for her thinly veiled contempt for fathers in her "My Kids Bore Me" piece. You know, how they slink off to the pub rather than stay home and change dirty nappies, because they're *allowed to* be bored by their children. I was hoping you, Rebel Dad and Mr. Nice Guy would set her straight.
She reminds me of Amy Sohn, although she's probably more shallow and has gobs more money to spend on her amusements. Guess I should avoid reading anything by Caitlin Flanagan...
[it was shooting fish in a barrel -ed.]
It's amazing how far outside of reality some people are...who reads this and sympathizes with her? .01% of the population?