Mom Records Her Husband & Nanny Practicing Their 'Dirty Dancing' Routine & People Have Thoughts
People had a lot to say about this nanny and her family's husband practicing the Dirty Dancing lift move.
TikTok You’ve tried it, I’ve tried it, we’ve all tried it — the iconic lift scene that happens during “The Time of My Life” from the 1987 hit movie “Dirty Dancing.” For some reason, however, everyone is talking about a video showing a nanny trying to get it done with the family she works with.
In August 2021, a woman named Rachel filmed an interaction between her husband, Andrew, and their nanny, Lizzie Norton — however, they never expected the reaction that people on the internet would have once they saw the clip.
People thought it was inappropriate to have the nanny 'Dirty Dancing' with her husband.
Alongside the caption “The nanny-dad content no one asked for,” Rachel filmed a clip a little over a minute in length and received 11.5 million views and more than 22,000 comments. “When dad comes home before the nanny leaves, this is what happens.”
Immediately, after Lizzie’s strongman pose, she heads over to the spot where Andrew stood and bent down to pick him up — a simple show of strength that seems harmless. Once Lizzie executes the lift, their son wants to get in on the action, jumping in to get lifted into the air by his dad who seems excited to do so.
The next clip, however, is where people started to get uncomfortable, as Andrew grabs hold of Lizzie at a spot just above her waist and attempts to lift her in the air. “Watch the hands,” a voiceover on the video says, pointing out how Andrew’s hands seem to slip upward along Lizzie’s torso because her shirt is riding up.
“Oh my god, that was nuts!” Lizzie said, referring to being lifted. “I’ve never done that before!” But Rachel scolds her husband, saying “You touched her boobs!” and getting an “I know” along with some laughter as a response from her husband.
After quickly moving on as if nothing happened, the voiceover says “Now trying ‘Dirty Dancing’ move,” and cuts to Andrew and Lizzie attempting to complete the Dirty Dancing lift move.
Everyone accused the two of them of being a little too close and called the whole thing inappropriate.
The two go through several attempts, all failed, but make it look like they’re having a little too much fun doing it. At one point, Lizzie practically wraps her legs around Andrew’s torso, with Rachel pointing out “You basically straddled him.”
People in the comments had a field day with the footage they were seeing. “I've been a nanny for 10 years and the most physical contact I've ever had was a hug and usually during a holiday/birthday and this screams [red flag].”
Many other nannies jumped in to say that they “would never,” and called this behavior wildly inappropriate. Others accused the two of them of sleeping together — and before you make any conclusions, despite her small stature, Lizzie is 23 years old in this video.
“She’s 23, our good family friend, and I’m the one recording now move along,” Rachel responded in the comments. Lizzie decided to chime in as well with her own comment.
“Sounds like a bunch of insecure [Karens] who aren’t stable in their marriages to trust a nanny,” she wrote, “y’all find a new thing to get mad at.”
Rachel is battling against a pretty dominant trope in the celebrity world — the dreaded affair between a father and his nanny. Celebrities from Ben Affleck to Jude Law have found themselves embroiled in a similar entanglement so viewers are understandably skeptical of Rachel's husband's intentions, albeit intrusive of them to comment on it!
Clinical psychologists have theorized that the prevalence of infidelity between fathers and nannies is linked to the objectification of babysitters who are subordinate and in a service position. Others have suggested men have a primal draw to the person taking care of their offspring.
Some viewers have even stressed the importance of boundary-setting in nanny-parent relationships. Michele Garza, a former nanny who now discusses how nannies and families can protect their professional relationship on an account called "The Best Loved Nanny," shared a response to the clip.
"With the video, I don't think that anything has actually gone wrong. I just think that it has started to blur the lines," she says in the post.
A year later, Rachel, Lizzie, and Andrew decided to film an “anniversary” of sorts, and had Andrew and Lizzie attempt to execute the Dirty Dancing lift once again — still failing — but showing people that the truth is much farther than people think.
According to Rachel, they’re all still very close, and although Lizzie doesn’t nanny for them anymore, she still comes over regularly to hang out.
Some people in the comments defended Lizzie and her nanny family, saying that the relationship between them is “like family,” and that makes it not weird at all. But much like one woman commented, “If my nanny doesn't look like Mrs. Doubtfire, I don't want her.”
Isaac Serna-Diez is an Assistant Editor who focuses on entertainment and news, social justice, and politics.