He should have resented her. She was inept, had no idea how to calm a crying child, and she’d gotten his dream job. But there was something about Greer that had Judd helping her out. Despite being bad at her job, she was charming, curvy, and had one of those smiles that made a man want to know her deepest secrets. Instead, he found himself telling her his. She shouldn’t have targeted him. Greer liked Judd. Who wouldn’t? He was hot and he love kids and he only rolled his eyes when she asked if he was a “manny.” Her name is synonymous with breaking stories, and the kids were the easy way into the Westland house. When her story hits the news, they are all going to lose their jobs. Would it be worth losing Judd, too?
The New Childcare Bible—A Must-Have Whether You Have Occasional Sitters or a Full-Time Nanny Finding the right caregiver can be one of the most life-changing decisions a parent makes. Whether it's a kindly neighbor for the weekday latchkey hours, a teenage babysitter one night a week, or a full-time professional nanny, the right caregiver can enrich a child's world and literally grow her brain. Hire the wrong one, and this person could cause developmental delays and stress for the entire family. In her groundbreaking new book, Secrets of the Nanny Whisperer: A Practical Guide for Finding and Achieving the Gold Standard of Care for Your Child, nationally recognized parenting expert Tammy Gold draws from her extensive background in child developmental psychology, social work, and family therapy to offer the first childcare bible for parents. Knowing the impact caregivers have on children coupled with the unregulated often unknown world of in-home childcare workers, Gold has devoted her professional career, and now this book, to helping parents navigate through this important--and woefully overlooked--process. She arms parents with invaluable tools, tips, and insider secrets to finding the perfect caregiver-family match. Gold's Family Needs Assessment helps parents identify the traits and conditions that are "must-haves," added "pluses," or nonnegotiable "deal breakers." Parents can then use this list of qualities to quickly weed out unqualified candidates. She also details what to ask over the phone and in a face-to-face interview, how to structure a trial run (which she deems essential), and what to spell out in a Nanny-Family Work Agreement--another essential tool included in the book. Readers learn her "Nanny Speak 1-2-3" technique to help clarify and resolve issues with the caregiver in a productive, positive way. In addition to saving hours and energy, Parents will also discover as much about parenting as they will about finding a nanny. Secrets of the Nanny Whisperer is chock-full of parenting gems about children's developmental stages, ways to nurture and stimulate the child, and essential strategies for maintaining harmonious and high-functioning parent-child-caregiver relationships. This book is a must read for parents who want to create a happier, healthier and safer childcare experience for their child.
Kaylah is single yummy mummy. She is frantically looking for Miss Right to look after her baby son, John, and time is running out. Will she find the perfect girl in time? Of course, she would love an all-singing, all-dancing Mary Poppins to land in her garden complete with umbrella and magic carpetbag, but she has to be realistic too. Can she reclaim her freedom and even fall in love again? And what on earth is the mysterious Secret Nanny Club all about?
Living together by necessity… Jordan dotes on his little daughter and can’t refuseher anything. When she begs for Felicity Fairfax asher live-in nanny, Jordan gives in—despite havinga grudge against the Fairfax family! Loving each other in secret… Both are astonished when their enforced intimacyleads to a fiery attraction. How can they be falling foreach other? And living under the same roof meansnothing can be hidden—not their growing passion,nor a family secret that’s about to turneverything upside down…
A surprising and revealing look at how today’s elite view their wealth and place in society From TV’s “real housewives” to The Wolf of Wall Street, our popular culture portrays the wealthy as materialistic and entitled. But what do we really know about those who live on “easy street”? In this penetrating book, Rachel Sherman draws on rare in-depth interviews that she conducted with fifty affluent New Yorkers—from hedge fund financiers and artists to stay-at-home mothers—to examine their lifestyle choices and understanding of privilege. Sherman upends images of wealthy people as invested only in accruing social advantages for themselves and their children. Instead, these liberal elites, who believe in diversity and meritocracy, feel conflicted about their position in a highly unequal society. As the distance between rich and poor widens, Uneasy Street not only explores the lives of those at the top but also sheds light on how extreme inequality comes to seem ordinary and acceptable to the rest of us.
Written by two former nannies, Emma McLaughlin and Nicola Kraus, The Nanny Diaries deftly punctures the glamour of Manhattan's upper class. Now a major motion picture starring Scarlett Johansson and Laura Linney. Wanted: One young woman to take care of four-year-old boy. Must be cheerful, enthusiastic and selfless--bordering on masochistic. Must relish sixteen-hour shifts with a deliberately nap-deprived preschooler. Must love getting thrown up on, literally and figuratively, by everyone in his family. Must enjoy the delicious anticipation of ridiculously erratic pay. Mostly, must love being treated like fungus found growing out of employers Hermès bag. Those who take it personally need not apply. Who wouldn't want this job? Struggling to graduate from NYU and afford her microscopic studio apartment, Nanny takes a position caring for the only son of the wealthy X family. She rapidly learns the insane amount of juggling involved to ensure that a Park Avenue wife who doesn't work, cook, clean, or raise her own child has a smooth day. When the Xs' marriage begins to disintegrate, Nanny ends up involved way beyond the bounds of human decency or good taste. Her tenure with the X family becomes a nearly impossible mission to maintain the mental health of their four-year-old, her own integrity and, most importantly, her sense of humor. Over nine tense months, Mrs. X and Nanny perform the age-old dance of decorum and power as they test the limits of modern-day servitude.
INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER “A superb suspense writer…Brava, Ruth Ware. I daresay even Henry James would be impressed.” —Maureen Corrigan, author of So We Read On “This appropriately twisty Turn of the Screw update finds the Woman in Cabin 10 author in her most menacing mode, unfurling a shocking saga of murder and deception.” —Entertainment Weekly From the #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Lying Game and The Death of Mrs. Westaway comes this thrilling novel that explores the dark side of technology. When she stumbles across the ad, she’s looking for something else completely. But it seems like too good an opportunity to miss—a live-in nannying post, with a staggeringly generous salary. And when Rowan Caine arrives at Heatherbrae House, she is smitten—by the luxurious “smart” home fitted out with all modern conveniences, by the beautiful Scottish Highlands, and by this picture-perfect family. What she doesn’t know is that she’s stepping into a nightmare—one that will end with a child dead and herself in prison awaiting trial for murder. Writing to her lawyer from prison, she struggles to explain the events that led to her incarceration. It wasn’t just the constant surveillance from the home’s cameras, or the malfunctioning technology that woke the household with booming music, or turned the lights off at the worst possible time. It wasn’t just the girls, who turned out to be a far cry from the immaculately behaved model children she met at her interview. It wasn’t even the way she was left alone for weeks at a time, with no adults around apart from the enigmatic handyman. It was everything. She knows she’s made mistakes. She admits that she lied to obtain the post, and that her behavior toward the children wasn’t always ideal. She’s not innocent, by any means. But, she maintains, she’s not guilty—at least not of murder—but somebody is. Full of spellbinding menace and told in Ruth Ware’s signature suspenseful style, The Turn of the Key is an unputdownable thriller from the Agatha Christie of our time.
'They say you can never truly love a child that is not your own, but that goes against every instinct that runs through me. For I have loved children born to other women all my life and every child that I have ever cared for, I've adored with all my heart. Many I would have laid down my life for, in fact on some memorable occasions when I fled to air raid shelters clutching my charges to my chest, I very nearly did. In 62 years of being a nanny I have lost count of the number of children I've cared for, but it must be approaching 100. Which means I am inordinately proud to say that despite never having actually given birth I have 100 children. How many women can say that?' Brenda is 91 years old and spent 62 years working as a Norland Nanny. Just like a real-life Mary Poppins, Brenda devoted her life to giving children the best possible start in life. Brenda began training at the Norland Institute in 1939 at the age of 18, shortly before war was declared. It was a time of great upheaval and uncertainty, particularly for children. Even as a nervous young trainee, Brenda was determined to give the children in her care a wonderful childhood, regardless of the horrors that were unravelling on the continent, and when the blitz began, on their doorsteps. Brenda worked poverty-stricken evacuees from the East End London, as well as in the nurseries of smart Kensington homes. She frequently put her life at risk, dashing to air raid shelters with her charges clutched to her chest. This is a story from a time when nothing was taken for granted and life itself was in peril on a near-daily basis. But the war was also a time when people pulled together like never before or since, and it called upon Brenda to make sacrifices she'd never imagined having to make... Warm, funny and incredibly moving, Brenda's memoir brings to life the colourful world of wartime England.
One of The New York Times Book Review's Ten Best Books of 2015 One of Jezebel's Favorite Books of 2016 A Manual for Cleaning Women compiles the best work of the legendary short-story writer Lucia Berlin. With the grit of Raymond Carver, the humor of Grace Paley, and a blend of wit and melancholy all her own, Berlin crafts miracles from the everyday, uncovering moments of grace in the Laundromats and halfway houses of the American Southwest, in the homes of the Bay Area upper class, among switchboard operators and struggling mothers, hitchhikers and bad Christians. Readers will revel in this remarkable collection from a master of the form and wonder how they'd ever overlooked her in the first place. "Perhaps, with the present collection, Lucia Berlin will begin to gain the attention she deserves." -Lydia Davis
