From the Dads who offer to pay for sex and the mothers who throw a hissy fit for calling them at work to accidentally swallowing the puke of one of the children they're looking after – life in childcare is far from glam.
Here, four women reveal what it’s like to be a nanny…
'I found one couple's sex toys and another dad tried to sleep with me'
Charlotte Brand, 25, is on maternity leave and lives in North London.
She says: "I studied childcare at college. And while you get taught all of the educational, health and safety needs when it comes to looking after children – what you don’t get taught is how to deal with handsy dads.
I did the job for 5 years and I would never return.
At one job, the dad asked me to drop his wife and daughter to a friend’s house half an hour’s drive away. I’d borrowed his Sat Nav and so had to return it before I went home.
At the door he invited me in. I went into the living room and was shocked. There was a table laid with a meal prepared, candles lit and there was alcohol out.
At first I wondered if it was a test to see if I’d drink around his daughter.
But he then proposed sexual favours he’d like from me in return for cash. He be happy to pay me behind his wife’s back.
I was horrified. The next morning I told the person who had hired me for the job what had gone on. I was in tears on the phone.
It was then she admitted he had propositioned the last nanny who had gone to work for the couple. Meanwhile, the wife was in denial telling me her husband wouldn’t go near me.
Mums always expect you to do the cleaning too. At one middle-class house I was vacuuming the bedroom and accidentally knocked a box off the dressing table.
Everything fell out. I was speechless when I discovered it was full of sex toys – vibrators, penis rings, tubes of lube… the works.
The idea of picking them up with my hands made me want to vom – so I found a plastic bag slipped it over my hands and put everything back in it's place."
'One of the kids vomited in my mouth'
Nanny Samantha Balson, 26 is married and lives in Waltham Cross, Hertfordshire.
She says: "All my friends call me 'Sammie the Nanny' – I’ve now been doing it for 4 years.
At one of my jobs I was looking after twins.
The mum didn’t work and so was almost always hovering around me. It was awkward at times and she was a bit of a nightmare.
The mum did go to the gym every morning though – it’s just as well as she was out when I had my worst moment playing with one of the kids.
We were doing aeroplanes and she was flying over my head. Suddenly she threw up in my face, I was covered and a bit of sick went in my mouth.
I’ve normally got a strong gag reflex but I couldn’t hold it in and threw up over her. We were both covered in vomit."
'The mum was secretly recording me the whole time'
Full time mum Neelam David, 43, lives with her partner and her 4 children in West London.
She says: "I was a nanny for three years from 17-20. In my first job I worked for a self-made solicitor and his wife.
The wife was a piece of work. If I was hungry I was told I could eat the oranges in the fridge but nothing else.
One day I was looking after the little girl and the husband called looking for his wife.
She’d told her office she was at home with her daughter – but I knew better.
She was really out with her boyfriend for the day – and I knew they were both cheating on one another.
The next job was amazing. The wife hired me to work for her three kids. The husband was one of richest men in the UK
When I started I soon realised the guy had three "wives" and eight kids between them. He popped round once a week to stay over.
The children were ferried to school in a limousine. We’d go to Monte Carlo in Monaco 8 times a year.
They had a yacht and I’d oversee the kids doing their homework on board – then we’d swim in the Med afterwards.
The family had their own helicopter for getting around the Mediterranean coastline and a villa outside Nice. There was a huge swimming pool, tennis courts, two housekeepers, two chefs – being in charge of the children during the holidays was fine in such luxurious surroundings.
At home I had my own bathroom, study room and bedroom in the loft. I was doing an Open University degree course. When the kids were at school the day was mine.
The worst job came after. The wife was horrific. Her husband was lovely – but worked in the City and was hardly ever at home.
Mum didn't work and spent her days going to spas, leaving me to look after her four-year-old daughter.
One day, when the daughter was at school I asked her mum if she wanted a drink. She grabbed me by my t-shirt, yanked me downstairs and told me what cleaning she expected me to do.
Later I overheard her ask her husband: “what’s the bloody nanny called?” I saw red. I’d worked for her for six months and she didn't even know my name! I handed in my notice.
I didn’t know it but I was on nanny cam the whole time. She trusted no one on staff. When I told her I was off she refused to let me leave before she had screened that day’s recording to check I hadn’t nicked anything.
I was 19, and it was only afterwards I discovered most nannies only lasted a fortnight.
'They treated me like a slave'
Sales promoter Michelle Burke, 46, is married and has two children. They live in Chigwell.
She says: "I was a nanny in Texas for a year in 1995. I was only 23 and it was a great way to grow up.
I chose a family in Texas because of the perks. I had a car, my own bedroom, my own bathroom.
The house was massive and I had just two kids to look after – a toddler and a baby. I loved them but the parents were another story.
The mum reminded me of a Stepford Wife. Even though she finished each night at 6.30 it wasn’t the kids she rushed home to: it was the gym.
I hardly saw the Dad the whole year I was there. If he wasn’t working he was away on business trips.
No one cooked either. Both the parents came home with takeaways. By then the kids were in bed. I’d be expected to rustle up Mexican dishes like enchiladas and tacos for the children.
Back then I could barely make sandwich, but nannies always get asked to do extra stuff on top.
I loved the baby though. Given how much time I spent with him it didn’t surprise me he ended up calling me 'mamma'.
When he took his first steps I excitedly called his mum. She went absolutely mad, “how dare you interrupt me while I’m at work?” I was shocked that she wasn’t interested in such an important milestone in her child's life.
We went on holiday to South Carolina. It wasn’t a vacation for me though. I did everything for the kids – they did treat me like a slave.
Each weekend the parents had the kids – they’d take it in turns looking after them while the other one went to the gym. They were very reluctant though. I honestly don’t know why people have kids if they don’t want to be with them."
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