A Nanny

After high school my sister Katy went off to Connecticut to be a nanny for a family over a summer. I'm not exactly sure how she liked it, but I remembering thinking that she would be (a) rich and (b) living in a mansion. Like a mansion mansion. Like that rich bald guy in Annie mansion. I never really asked her about that summer - I wonder if she did live in a mansion. (Dear Katy, please do a blog post about your summer nannying? Now we're all curious.)

My perception of people with nannies really hasn't changed much over the years. Clearly these are humans with LOADS of cash and ginormous homes because who has extra room for extra people?! The idea blows my mind.

But a few weeks ago when Josh and I were looking at the craziness that is October, we realized we needed help with our lovely children. I couldn't quit my job for a month, and we couldn't find enough flexible child care for just a month either. We weren't really sure what to do - when suddenly Josh had a brilliant idea.

"Would you wanna see if Cami would want to come live with us in exchange for watching our boys? We have the guest room in the basement...she could just have that bathroom - we never really use it anyway....."
Yes! Yes I would!

Cami is Josh's younger sister and she's been working on moving out of the parent's house, but it hasn't all fallen into place quite yet, and this (to me) seemed like a brilliant idea solving all of our problems. Well not all of them. But some. 

So this week Cami has been living with us and caring for our kids while we're both at work and it has been heavenly. I don't have to take them anywhere, they don't whine about putting their shoes on, John naps in his own bed whenever he wants, and she is the kind of person that ANYbody can live with because she is only helpful and adds exactly zero extra work to my life. In fact, I've been giving the "doing the dishes and cleanup" credit to Josh all week, but I suspect it's really her. She just sneaks around taking care of things for me.

But I'm here to tell you, not all people with nannies are rich. And we don't live in a mansion (though having 5 bedrooms available to me still blows my mind. SO. MUCH. SPACE!) and nobody sings and dances in maid outfits while they cook.

It's just a temporary thing, and our house is up for trustee's sale again in a couple of weeks - so there's really no telling how long this will last. But in the meantime, I'm sure enjoying this gig.

Now just imagine if I could do all that myself. Next step: stay at home momming.