The Nanny Diaries

As the new boss, Dave's gone to Beijing for a few days. The girls and I are on our officially on our own in this big city until late Tuesday night. And so, I did what I always do when Dave's out of town. I watched a movie I know he wouldn't like.

This time I chose The Nanny Diaries. The movie kept to the basic storyline and moral of the book, which I read and enjoyed. And so, even though the quality of the film was less than stellar, I enjoyed my evening with Scarlett Johansson, Laura Linney and some imported macaroni and cheese.

The thing that struck me the most about the movie, told by the nanny to an Upper East Side, Manhattan dysfunctional family, was the similarities between life on the Upper East Side and expatriate life in Shanghai. Now, I imagine that these men in New York earn significant amounts more money and that these women spend multiple times more than the women I am chumming around with. Still, the similarities were jarring.

In both places,
- unemployed women carry business cards
- nameless nannies / ayis care for their children 40 hours a week to round-the-clock so the mothers can have some "me time"
- mothers spend their time at parenting classes, and sign their nannies / ayis up for skill classes as well, communicating with your ayi, western cooking for ayis, first aid for ayis
- ayis / nannies are regularly fired on a whim and at a moment's notice
- in otherwise luxurious homes, live-in ayis / nannies sleep in shockingly small quarters
- mothers concentrate on feeding their children the healthiest possible food, organic, gluten-free, and this is certainly more difficult in Shanghai than in Manhattan
- nannies / ayis accompany the family on "family vacations" where parents spend precious little time with their children

I am not, by nature, a rich person. In fact, the very concept grates against me. I'm a Johnson County girl, who never fit in. I remember sitting at a table in art class, seventh grade, when a nameless girl made fun of me for having no clothes from the Gap. You mean, you've never even been inside Banana Republic? Are you hearing this? she says to her friend behind her. Where do you shop, then? As a direct result, I revel in shopping at Old Navy and Target.

And here I am considering having business cards printed, surrounded by women who meet for lunch and plan charity benefits while their ayis care for their children, planning my next trip through Asia and interviewing for both an ayi and a driver.