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Main Page Site Index Getting Pregnant Pregnancy Parenting Pregnancy and Parenting Journals Fertility Nutrition Pregnant Moms Morning Sickness Women's Health Child Health	On Becoming Mary Poppins... I am 24 years old. I have had 8 kids in 4 years, the oldest being 6. I haven't given birth a single time. I am a nanny. My first nanny job came quite by luck. My only experience was the previous eight years of evening sitting for one family and two summers of full time care for another. But a glowing reference is the best kind, so off I went. The mom in question liked my child loving personality, my professional appearance, and my quick and honest answers, and the very next day, I had a new career. Note to parents looking: sometimes it's not always oodles of previous experience that are important. Someone needs to give you the first job so you can start to acquire those oodles! Okay, let's be candid here. My first family was NOT someone I would have chosen to work for had I known then what I know now about the business. Let's just say I was a touch naive and more than a touch taken advantage of. Can you say Holy Under-paid Batman? It was housework before childcare, even though I was pretty sure I hadn't applied for the maid's position and I sure as heck wasn't getting a maid's salary to go with it! I actually had to wash out the washing machine after a load went through. I kind of thought that since the clothes were clean, hence, the machine would be also. Ohhh, not so. Needless to say, it was a short-lived arrangement. I was referred to my next family via a dad I had met in the park with the kids. He asked if I did evening sitting and I said sure. Smartest answer I have ever given in my life, I tell ya. His wife knew of a lady who was a doctor who was looking for a good nanny to replace a not-so-good nanny. And like good news, good nanny names travel fast. So the following week, I was caring for three little beauties in a big house in a posh neighborhood chock full of parks and playgrounds. Bliss. In this world of constant downsizing, I would have been naïve to believe that it would never touch me. The dad lost his job and my well-paid, very-rarely-off-late, close-to-my-home position had become non-existent. It was not long however, that I was once again permanently employed. I was hired by the end of the interview and started the next day. Their previous nanny was quite unreliable and apparently, I was a godsend. They worried I would be late like the others, living so far away, and them needing me so early, but I shocked them and never came late once. This did not seem out of the ordinary to me, for I knew that if I was late, then in turn, they would be late, and that was good for none of the involved parties! The mom later revealed to me (once we had grown closer) that she was a tad hesitant to hire this blonde, leggy chick, but good sense overrode and I got the job. They were most impressed with my childcare only resume and glowing references. It wasn't until they both got transferred to Brandon (about 2 hours from our city) that the idea of moving on was ever brought up. Despite pleas to move to Brandon with them and promises of finding my husband a job if we would come, I declined and we said farewell. I then did a short, and I do mean short, stint for a family who really had no idea how to treat a nanny. They didn't see me as being a daytime mom for their child they saw me as cheap labor. It was supposed to be three hours a day, for $15.00, and I thought, okay, five bucks an hour, just a little spending cash, that's good enough. But three hours turned into 7 by the second day and five bucks an hour became WAY less. Sorry! I'm outta there! The next day I left a letter on my way out stating quite simply that I was worth more than that. I had been at home for only 10 minutes when there was loud banging on my door. "Charlotte, I know you're in there. C'mon, open up. Can't we work something out? Please don't leave, we can work this out!" Followed by more banging. I tiptoed to my room and pretended not to be home and tried not to be too embarrassed as I imagined what my neighbors must have thought as they listened through their paper thin walls. Crazy ex-boyfriend won't leave the poor girl alone. And that was, by far, the oddest nanny-related experience I have ever had. Which now takes us to my present situation. A few days after the last (and fingers crossed, only) nanny fiasco, I went to a lovely home, decorated beautifully, with a quiet, tiny, little one-month-old baby boy who was looking for a nanny. The mom looked tired but happy and told me they had already hired a nanny but were still looking for evening and emergency help. By the end of the interview however, the previously hired nanny was no longer and I was to be little George's caregiver. And that'll be three years this February that we have spent day after day together. Not once have I been late. I have even managed to get there in a blizzard when most people got to stay home for the day, and I have never turned down an evening job or refused to stay late when they needed me to (which is basically daily). He's getting big now and talks so much you just can't shut him up. He even listens to me more so than his mom (she spoils him a bit) and I don't take much...well...crap from him and he knows it. He still tries of course, wouldn't be a kid if he didn't, but he knows my answer won't change and it never will. Sure, with mom and dad, he's the boss. But it's like I keep telling him, " I'm not mom and dad now am I?" Charlotte Macchia has been a full time nanny for nearly 5 years who has been taking care of little George since he was one month old. She has been married to Patrick (Pasquale) Macchia since August, 1997 and is looking forward to having kids of her own. She has recently been published in Equinox magazine and is looking forward to a career in writing which will allow her family time also. She was born in London, England and now lives in Winnipeg, Manitoba, the prairies of Canada, but seeing as her loves include hiking, climbing and skiing, hopes to move west soon! Patrick, George, and Charlotte