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What, all nannies don't wear capes?

By Times Staff Writer
Published December 16, 2005

You flip on the TV and it's pure chaos. Children hit each other, call Mom an idiot, hold up the Federal Reserve with squirt guns.

Time to call Nanny 911 or Supernanny. After an hour of tough love and, well, noticing that the kids exist, the family is hugging like the end of a Full House rerun.

Is this normal? Even slightly possible?

We checked in with Amanda Adams, 20, and Heather Beverly, 29, two professional nannies, to find out what really goes on. Adams watches twin girls in Westchase, and Beverly works for two families in Hyde Park and New Tampa.

Beverly plays chauffeur, picking up the kids, one 9-year-old boy and two 8-year-old boys from two families, after school. She lets them play a while, gets them a snack and starts them on homework.

"We try and have it completed so in the evenings they have time to spend with their parents," Beverly said.

Adams' clients have a more mellow schedule of eating and sleeping - the girls are 2 months old.

"It's really not that hard," Adams said. "They sleep, they get up and eat, and they get up and play for about 20 minutes," she said.

A week, said Beverly. Maybe.

"If it's a 24/7 type of thing where everybody is completely and totally committed, possibly," she said.

Adams said it depends on the experience of the nanny.

"I wouldn't necessarily consider (nannies) miracle workers," she said.

Though Adams hasn't had a chance to watch the shows, Beverly is a fan. She watches them with the kids and picks up helpful hints. Some messages hit home faster when they are delivered by a colorful British nanny on the big screen.

"She says things that I may have said 100 times and it may not have clicked," she said. "I've picked up little things like, "Oh, that's a good idea.' "

Beverly's jeans and T-shirt uniform are all about comfort.

Hospital scrubs are Adams' style choice. Babies notice the color in her favorite Scooby Doo scrub top. Plus, when working with human goo factories, the utilitarianism is a plus.

"Lately, I've been working with babies and they spit up," she said.

It's safe to say Adams isn't shoveling ladles of glucose at her infant charges, but Beverly said the adage can be true.

"I have a child that can't stand medicine, but if I have the Sprite ready for him, he'll take his medicine."

Beverly said one family she worked for got a little spy-happy. There were several nannies on hand at one time for only a few children, she said, and Mom hung out in the other room. There were cameras all around, normally a good safety precaution, Beverly said, but "for this family, it was more of a control issue."

One time, Beverly said, she disciplined a child for acting out, and the mother came on an intercom and corrected her.

That, to her, isn't the point of having a nanny.

"I feel like a nanny should be there either to help the parents because there are multiple children of the same age or because the parents work," she said. "You're there to help raise the children while the parents can't be there."

[Last modified December 15, 2005, 10:05:12]