Cutting Back to 5 Nannies
The economy is so bad right now that some families are forced to cut back to only five nannies! The horror! Only five nannies per family? How in the WORLD will they survive?? [Sarcasm over.] Okay, we’ll settle down so we can bring you the story.
In Playground Magazine’s Spring issue, they feature a profile of Jacqueline Siegel, well-known socialite, wife of billionaire David Siegel (the Westgate Resort timeshare mogul) and mother of eight. She’s currently building “the biggest house in America” — a 90,000 square foot home that will have more than 30 bathrooms. For now, though, the family lives in a temporary home with marble floors, lakefront custom pool and white peacocks.
Enough about that extravagance. Let’s move on to the nanny talk.
As we mentioned, Jacqueline Siegel has eight children: 2-year-old twins, a 5-year old, 7-year-old, 8-year-old, 9-year-old, 12-year old and 15-year-old. She also has five nannies.
From the article:
How many people do you have on staff in your home?
We have five nannies right now. They each have their own assignments, with one specifically for the twins. One of the nannies is considered the driver and takes the kids to school, lessons and friends’ houses. We also have a housekeeper. We used to have more, but my husband thought we should cut back because of the bad economy and the layoffs he had to make at his company. He thought we should suffer too. We even have our kids doing chores now. They take out the garbage and stuff like that. We explained that the whole country is going through a hard time right now and they have to pitch in. They understand.What do the nannies provide that you cannot?
For one thing, they provide safety for our children. Living in a big home, with 2-year-old twins, it’s difficult. One twin starts running down one hall and the other twin runs down the other. As one person, you don’t know which one to go get. Or sometimes they can even get lost in the house. We have a big pool and we live on a lake. I wouldn’t tolerate it for one minute if they were not being watched and ended up floating in the pool or something. They also provide love. For me, nannies are employees. But for the children — and I talked to a pediatrician about this — they are like extended family.
Well, then. Thoughts?
The funniest part of the article to me was that Mr. and Mrs. Siegel laid off some of their nannies so that the Siegel family could experience the hardships the rest of the country is suffering. Mrs. Siegel acknowledges that the nannies are like extended family to the children, yet she has no qualms laying them off when jobs are hard to come by. I can assure you that the laid off nannies are suffering more than the billionaire Siegels.
As a side note, I run a swim school and one of my biggest concerns is child drowning. (In Texas (my state), Arizona, Florida, and California drowning is the number one preventable cause of death in children under the age of 5.) Instead of relying on a nanny to keep her children from drowning, Mrs. Siegel should install a self-closing self-latching gate around her pool and keep locked all doors leading to the yard where the pool is. I understand that in a 90K square foot house that may be difficult, but I am positive that the life of one of her children is worth more than the hassle of keeping the pool inaccessible to the children. Besides, I am sure she only has to tell a nanny to make sure it is done.
Well, they have the money to do what they like. I would think they could get away with 3 nannies as the children are getting older. Plus it could be cheaper to hire a driver for the older children. Too bad the laid off nannies could work for Octomom? I bet she can afford them now.
As for the pool, I agree with Christy, just put up locking gate around it. Then again it’s the nannies job to keep them safe.
Crazy that she had to talk to her pediatrician to find out that a nanny is like extended family to her kids…
“Living in a big house with twin 2 year old’s is difficult.” I feel so bad….
How horrible for her!!!! lol
I guess maybe I read the story in a different light. First off, she didn’t say she laid off some of the nannies. She may well have been speaking of other staff as the article asked her how many staff she had. I was a nanny for a wealthy family once who had 2 children and they had 2 nannies. I was the weekday nanny and the other one was the weekend nanny. I also interviewed with a family once who had twins and they were looking to hire 4 nannies(weekday-weeknight-weekend day and weekend night) and they were not billionaires either. Since this lady has 5 nannies I am sure they don’t all work at the same time. She stated that 1 is for the twins and 1 is a driver, that leaves 3 spots which could be used by the other nannies as replacement spots. If they can afford it, so be it. I just have a problem with parents who give birth then hire other people to take care of their kids ALL the time. That is why I turned down one of the 4 position jobs along with the fact that I thought those children would be so confused dealing with 4 different nannies.
I get what hersee is saying. I applied for a job that had a 9-5 nanny, overnight nanny and wknd nanny for 3 children. I decided it wasn’t the job for me to be the wknd nanny. I can’t/won’t judge families for choosing to have children and then hiring nannies to raise their children. My aunt/uncle are Drs and had a nanny all the time for their 3 children. They only saw them at night and wknds.
@Christy: I didnt find it funny. I found it out of touch. If she wants the kids to really experience hardships why not have them clean up a wing of their maega mansion?
I hope the staff they fired was given severance pay.
& I agree. A fence around the pool probably costs less than 1 pair of her shoes.
@nannie30: They def could get along w just 3 but Jacq doesnt want 2 deal w her kids so she pawns them off of the help. I wonder if the kids confide in their nannies instead of their parents. The 15 & 12 yr old are adolescents so with hormones & school pressure they def need attn .
2) How is it cheaper 2 have a driver? I bet NOTHING about this woman is cheap. She probably doesnt even use charmin or cottonelle like the rest of us.
@kat083: The pediatrician probably was the 1 who told her 2 get help bc s/he saw that the kids were getting enought attn. After all she has 8 kids.
@attmGarvin: Al she has to do is move to a smaller house. 1 can live extravangantly w/o living excessively.
@hersee: Does it matter if its nannies or generla staff? It is excessive. Needing help I do understand but I think Jac needs 2 take a more active role.
I clicked & read the full article. She has a comp en degree & worked 4 IBM so she a dumb blonde. But I do wonder if she had the 7 kids ( they adopted the 15yr old, she is their niece) for love or financial security. We all have 2 be honest, 7 kids will def get a large child suport decree.
Well they do sound like they are living in a palace and let’s face it, a palace is truly hard to maintain and i am not just referring to the housekeeping side of things. I can understand why she needs so many nannies. Ofcourse, they want to ensure than an eye is on the children’s every move but there are also other things that needs to be done around the house. The meal preparation, the general housekeeping, etc. Let’s face it, it is quite a challenge keeping up with high energy twins much less 8 children. I cannot give someone a hard time just because they can afford certain luxuries and want to provide that and more for their children. Atleast they are making some effort to teach the children discipline and that they need to be somewhat self sufficient.
Heck if I were building a 30 bathroom mansion, I would have a 1000 staff members on my property if I could afford it. Like the lady said, she would not want to come home to see her child’s body floating in their pool. With as many staff as she has, there would be absolutely no excuse for that should something like that happen. If they feel that 5 nannies is what it will take to get the job done and to secure the safety of their children, then so be it. What’s all the fuss about?
I’m sorry, but I could never work for billionaires. Mainly because I don’t charge crazily. I charge the bare-minimum I can do the job for because I don’t want to put people at a disadvantage. But when the one woman hired me for$10/hour on the phone, and I showed up to her highly decorated, huge screen tv in every room, diamond jelwery just laying around, etc house… I felt jipped.
Well, in response to them “cutting back” I recently lost my job because the family I worked for was “cutting back” as well. They employed a staff of 4. Have two evening nannies. She is a famous news anchor in Chicago with a salary I am sure of over a million a year and her husband is a doctor. The doctor said he would cut my hours if Obama won and guess what Obama won and they cut my job!! The rich will do what the rich will do. She always said I was part of the family…ha is that how you treat family? I am a recent cancer survior and if anyone knows how I will be able to pay for my medication please let me know.. It sucks not having a job, I feel like a fish out of water…
If anyone knows of anyone looking for help, nanny, house manager or anything, anywhere in the Northern or Western Suburbs of Chicago please let me know elizabeth20069@yahoo.com
Ridiculous.
I personally met Mrs. Siegel, the children I nanny for and her twins went to the same party. She was a very very nice women. But of course one of her nannys(wearing a westgate resort t-shirt) was there looking after her twins while she sat and socialized with the other mommys with a nice refreshment. Honestly though, thats how other mothers were too. So if were going to point fingers, there are alot more families we could be pointing at. The host of the party had 3 nannies. So when you have that much money, its easy to take the stresses off from being a mom and hand it to someone else. But the upside to all that, that gives more nannies the opportunity for employment. I personally wouldnt trade the family I work for anyday for a millionare family. I enjoy having a good relationship not only with the kids but also with the parents. Something I know for a fact is hard to come by working for a Million or Billionare family.
The most interesting part for me was that they now have their kids doing chores. Wow, that must be so hard for them. Give me a break. They’re not being very good parents if the kids just lay around and the nannes do whatever the kids want them to do. Also, the poor family must be suffering along with the rest of the family now that they only have 5 nannies. Maybe I should go and offer my services for free.
JK.
I really thought they could have done their share more effectively by NOT letting the nannies go–thereby helping stimulate the economy by keeping the nannies and other staff ON their payroll instead of having them join the unemployment rolls…
Wow, you guys are really brutal. Every thought of walking a mile in another’s shoes before judging them?
wow i just wonder what it would be like to work with other nannies
my sister worked for a guy whos two kids lived very separate lives
they had two appts joined together , the children didnt spend any time together
not even to eat their meals, i would have to give it a try if the money was great, but in general i prefer to work for middle class families,
last thought if i ever here oh you are a part of our family again i might scream
because the last prson who said that, dropped me the minute he ran into a problem, i currently have no job and have used up my savings , so food rent and bills are now the only thing on my mind,
No kidding on the “you are a part of our family” thing – last time I heard that was while I was being told how much they love me…as they fired me because I had decided to get married. Cry all you want, tell me you love me, tell me I’m part of the family…obviously none of it matters. Same family (the ones who loved me soooo much) also decided to not keep their word about the taxes, and now I’m stuck with a several thousand dollar debt.