The Nanny Diaries

By Emma McLaughlin and Nicola Kraus

Needing some cash, a college student takes on the literally thankless task of being a nanny to the young son of a very affluent family. The boy, Grayer, liked his previous nanny and at first is resentful of the new nanny. But the nanny eventually wins him over and develops a close and loving relationship with Grayer. Which would be fine except for the parents...
The dad is a selfish, self-involved, high-powered business man who has little time or interest in either his son, or it turns out later, his current wife. And this wife, sensing her precarious position in her husband's interest, has little time or interest in the son she spawned in order to cement her relationship with the wealthy, rich hubby. Both these people are monsters of selfishness but the wife is one of the most demanding and unreasonable employers anyone ever had the misfortune to work for. For, as the nanny finds out, not only is she expected to have the care of the little boy, she is also dragooned into running errands and performing many tasks for the awful mother. When the nanny finds out that the previous nanny was fired for the most trifling of reasons, she realizes that her days are most likely numbered too. But she tries to hang on because she knows that she is the one good thing in little Grayer's life.

This book confirms what we all suspect: rich people suck. The way the nanny is treated and abused and made to feel like garbage and the total selfishness of this couple of creeps is a real revelation. And reading about it makes for a very entertaining story, although the fate of the little boy is sad, stuck with creeps like that for parents. He will never want for anything except love.

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