I Was a Nanny

I’ve had many jobs. Cashier and eventually key holder at Dunkin doughnuts, Food emporium, deli worker, telemarketer, bagel emporium worker, local library clerk. Before that, during the week, 13 to 20, I was a babysitter.

At 13 I watched a couple of kids. They were great. I remember one in particular, a little girl who was Jewish and knew I wasn’t. This was a predominantly Jewish area, me being a shiksa was an anomaly. She had Christmas decorations that she wanted to put up, look at, then take down. We did that every time I came. I felt weird but also loved her enthusiasm. She had a plan and a way to enact it successfully. I bet she’s a CFO of something now.

Years later, at age 19, I sat for my little 2 year old neighbor. She had just moved from France and adorably said some things in French. I learned too.

I sat with her every week day and sometimes a weeknight. I loved it. I came up with things like, go on a walk and pick up leaves then draw them. Her dad was the curator for an art museum in NYC so we’d occasionally paint pictures and then hang them up as a “collection”. Mom and Dad loved this.

She was so amazing, I was in the market for an alternate way of looking at life, and a child’s view was everything. Every discovery, and everything she saw was a discovery, was a gift!

Her mom wrote a note to me once, giving her thanks to treating her daughter with “dignity”. Honestly, that little girl did more for me than anyone in my life at the time.

When she got older, I lost touch. I moved away. I saw her mom at a catered event I was working years later. This little girl was an adult and lived in another state. It was such a shock! It’s like I didn’t think she’d ever grow up! But she did and apparently every bit as amazing as I thought.

It would be interesting to speak to her now. Does she remember me? Does she have the same personality traits she had that young?

If she requested my friendship on Facebook would I feel comfortable accepting?

I’m glad I knew all the kids in my charge. That is the most gratifying job I’ve ever had.