The Nanny Diaries

I just finished watching the Nanny Diaries. I've been wanting to see it for a while, since I'm a part time nanny (still). It is suppose to be a feel good kind of movie, but not something that really blows someone away with how great it is. However, I have to say, in parts I was choked up with tears. I really related to this movie. This is why:

Scarlett Johansson who plays Annie the Nanny has just graduated from college, and feels all this pressure to enter the real world work force, but it just doesn't feel right so as a temporary solution she becomes a nanny. At first it doesn't start out so well. The little boy is a little trouble maker, but soon they bond, and she starts observing the family's life. His parents are hardly home, and when they are they don't want him around. They care more about what school he goes to than him. All the while, Annie is the only loving care giver in his life. At one point in the movie the little boy tells Annie that he loves her, and even though she doesn't think she should, she tells him she loves him back. On his birthday he gets scared by a clown and wants Annie over his mother. When he is sick Annie takes care of him while his mother relaxes at a spa. Ultimately, Annie sacrifices a lot of her personal happiness to care for this little boy, which is very rewarding, but also extremely tiresome and burdensome. Annie has a very hard time deciding if she should quit her job. She knows just how much she is needed, and she genuinely cares about the little boy's welfare over her own. How it ends is somewhat unimportant to this blog post so I'll leave it out.

All of what I've just written are examples that relate to how I feel all the time as a part time nanny. Most days are excruciatingly long, and even though the girls I care for are little angels they can drive me nuts. No matter how much I want to quit I know that I'll have to have a really really really really good reason to quit because I just care so damn much about those girls. It is so sad for me, but also happy when one of the girls says to me, "you come to my dance class, but mommy can't," or when their dad comes home in the evening and they say, "are you staying dad?" and then they beg me to stay instead of him. Occasionally they tell me they love me, and when I'm not there their mom tells me they count down the days until I'm coming back. It is really nice to be wanted and needed, but sometimes I feel bad that I'm the person they get when really they want consistent love and attention from their parents. I don't mean to say that their parents do a bad job of raising them because in actuality they are magnificent parents. Really what choked me up the most was the bond that Annie the nanny shared with the little boy, and how he came to love her as a family member. I feel like the girls I nanny are like family, so I just worry about their welfare. This movie did a good job of pointing out why I should worry a little, but not too much. Besides, I'm a really great nanny:)