I haven’t written much lately about my experience of being a nanny and how life with the kids and the family in general is going. Usually the way in which I feel and act is always changing and my emotions and feelings towards the family and the job are changing too. It is not an easy job. I think there is a reason that not many people chose this as their life career. Taking care of children can be very rewarding, but there will always be something lost when you are not an actual part of the family.
Annabel, the oldest at 8, likes me most of the time. She says that I am very nice during play time and bath time but that I am “naughty” when it comes time to eat. This is because she is constantly stealing food off of her brother which of course upsets him so I of course have to tell her no. She does not like to be told no and in most cases there is not a reason to tell her no. It is evident she is the oldest though as seen when a fight ensues over any toy—then the toy becomes “her” toy because she was the first owner of it. She is a very smart girl. She speaks the best English of the children (maybe even of the family) and is my translator as needed. She excels at school and stresses if she doesn’t get her homework done. She was taking an extra curricular Italian class at school. Almost everyday she has some new comment to make about my nose piercing and how ugly and disgusting it is. That’s fun.
Daphne is the middle child and is six years old. She is difficult to really explain. She seems to fluctuate between extreme quietness, extreme loudness, and heavy crying. Any emotion she is feeling at the time is overpowering. If she is in a mood where she doesn’t want to be touched and you touch her (which you have no way of knowing if she is in such a mood) a torrential downpour of emotion will appear which I am told to ignore. She is an artist drawing intricate drawings (including a naked woman next to a lion that was hung on the fridge) and she struggles with school a lot more than Annabel does as she does not have the patience for it. “Twinkle Twinkle Little Star” has become her motto as she is learning to play it on guitar and it consumes her every moment. She has taught both her parents and her grandma how to pick this little tune out on guitar and she beams with pride when someone new comes to listen to her play. Playing guitar together has been the first real way for Daphne and I to bond because she doesn’t speak that good of English and it has been difficult to bond in other ways.
Clarence is the youngest at two. He is the one that I spend the most time with. I get him up in the morning (if he doesn’t get me up first), I play with him, feed him lunch, put him down for his nap, play with him some more, give him his bath, and finally read him a book and put him to bed. For the most part he is a good child, usually he smiles and laughs at everything. When he does get upset or do something he shouldn’t I just have to tell him no or give him a time out. He learns well though and doesn’t seem to repeat mistakes. I have taught him to say please and thank you and he appears to love the word fish.
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