Nanny For Ultra-Wealthy Parents Told 'We're Looking For Someone To Raise Our Kids'
The lifestyles of the rich and famous often don't include parenting.
Cottonbro Studio / Pexels A New York-based nanny explained the practical and emotional nuances of working for very rich families. Gloria Richards, 34, has been working for the last 10 years as a nanny for billionaires’ kids, a position she said makes up 80 to 90% of her yearly income.
At one interview, ultra-wealthy parents told the dedicated nanny, ‘We’re looking for someone to raise our kids.’
Richards told CNBC Make It that certain parents don’t want the responsibility of rearing children, and “they tell me they had kids to pass on their trust funds, [and that] ‘I’ll hang out with them after boarding school when they can drink.'”
Photo: Cottonbro Studio / Pexels
“I’ve had full-blown interviews where [parents] are like, ‘We’re looking for someone to raise our kids,'” Richards stated.
Richards relies on the high salary she makes as a nanny for rich families in order to support herself, but what keeps her on the job is the connection she has to the kids she cares for. In certain positions, Richards acts as a fill-in parent who provides practical and emotional support, especially when the biological parents aren’t physically present for their kids.
Richards explained she only needs to work a few months at a time, yet she stays longer because she cares about the kids she nannies for.
“I could nanny for, like, two months at the top of the year, and I’d be fine for the rest of the year… What feeds me is being able to work so closely with these kids.” She makes up to $2,000 a day for 12 to 15 hours of work, which often goes beyond actual childcare into coordinating the logistics of kids’ educational schedules and social lives.
Richards works with around 10 families at a time and is employed through the household staffing firm Madison Agency. Jackie Mann, the Director of Operations for the agency, explained that Richards is more than just a capable caregiver; she also has the right kind of personality for the job.
“The qualities it takes to work for the ultra-wealthy is patience and a nuanced perception of anticipating a person's needs," Mann stated.
According to CNBC, Richards said she “often acts as a companion for neurodivergent children with absent and complicated parents.” Some of her clients are so famous, she never actually meets them. She explained that on her first day of one nanny job, she arrived at an airport where she met the children she was providing care for, then accompanied them on a private jet to a rented-out resort in Barbados.
But the job isn’t always simple or as glamorous as it might appear.
"I'll be in, like, Switzerland, and they're telling me they can't pay me for three weeks because they don't have cash," Richards stated. "That's also how they communicate when they don't like something you did. They'll stop paying you."
Richards has learned to set boundaries around her professional life, and as she told CNBC, “I have to be very mindful that even though it’s an intimate setting, it’s still a job.”
Alexandra Blogier is a writer on YourTango's news and entertainment team. She covers parenting issues, pop culture analysis and all things to do with the entertainment industry.