Stephanie Kiser lived the life of luxury on Manhattan’s Upper East Side, socializing with Hollywood stars, riding in limousines, and shopping in trendy boutiques. The only problem was that her frequent boyfriends and party buddies all had sticky hands, some wore diapers, and all were under the age of six.
In her first memoir Wanted: Personal assistant for toddlersKiser writes about the seven years she spent working as a nanny for extremely wealthy families in New York City. Growing up, she didn’t dream of wiping runny noses and soothing unruly children, but she did imagine living in the Big Apple.
Kiser writes honestly about her dysfunctional family in Rhode Island. Her parents married when they were in their late teens after her mother, Hope, became pregnant. After Stephanie was born, her parents divorced when she was still a baby. Her father, Stew, spent his free time at the local race track, racing cars he’d spent most of his money building. Kiser describes being labeled as poor white trash in school—and realizing that her family’s lifestyle was just that. That’s one reason she craved a completely different lifestyle, and living with families in the top one percent of American society gave her a personal, up-close look at what most others could only dream of.
Wanted: Personal assistant for toddlers
Her parents could not afford to send Kiser to college. Although she was a very mediocre student, she was a talented basketball player, and her skills on the court earned her tuition at a private girls’ high school.
At the Lincoln School for Girls, Kiser had her first experiences with upper-class families. She became best friends with Lila and the two later lived together in New York City.
After studying screenwriting for film and television in college, Kiser was determined to break into the industry. But financially burdened by student loans, the high cost of living in New York, and even low-paying entry-level jobs were scarce, she desperately took a nannying stance.
Lila began her career at a law firm, and Kiser contrasted her friend’s future professional success with her job as a nanny, which offered no opportunities for advancement. She was forced to confront her true desires and devise a plan to make her dreams a reality.
Working as a nanny for rich people paid her about $100,000 a year, and some families offered health insurance benefits and annual bonuses. When Kiser earned enough to pay her loan payments, buy groceries, split rent on a decent apartment with an old friend, and still have a little left over to buy clothes and go to bars, her ambitions as a writer were put on hold. The money she earned had lured her in and then captured her, and the hours were long and sometimes unpredictable.
Kiser knew she was just a paid servant, not much different from a cook or housekeeper. Fortunately, the first family she worked for turned out to be more down-to-earth and grounded than most she later encountered. She was shocked to discover the racist attitudes of some employers and found that they treated her—a white, educated young woman—with more respect than the nannies, who were older and had emigrated to the United States from other countries. One man she worked for told Kiser that he saved the large steaks he grilled to give to his family and guests, while instructing the nannies to take only a smaller piece for themselves.
Kiser provides a variety of details about the children she cares for, some of which are unnecessary but overall Wanted: Personal assistant for toddlers offers a rare glimpse into the treatment of nannies and other employees by America’s super-rich.
Andrea Geary is a freelance writer in Winnipeg.
