another book in less than a week!

Last night I finished reading The Nanny Diaries by Emma McLaughlin and Nicola Kraus -- VERY INTERESTING BOOK!!!!!! I'll start with the negative -- there's quite a lot of "language" and a couple "inappropriate relationship" scenes. Not as much as in the last book I read, though. The story is obviously about being a nanny. I had never really taken any time to actually analyze or even seriously ponder the lifestyle of extremely wealthy Americans. This book put it right in my face. Although it is a work of fiction, every story has some resemblance to reality; and that fact is quite disturbing to me about this book. The mother who hired the main character to be a part-time nanny (as in two or three days a week, no more than fifteen hours a week) did not have a career, but she spent absolutely no time with her four-year-old son. By the end of the book, the nanny was working an average of sixty hours per week and not always getting paid. The father was having an affair and working constantly, so he was never there. Needless to say, the child she cared for had some serious "issues," but she loved him almost as if he were her own child since she was pretty much raising him. The mother completely took her for granted and took advantage of her.

I would LOVE to be able to afford some help with my kids and household responsibilities, but just HELP. I would never want someone else raising my kids. When my children have nightmares, get owies, or get their feelings hurt, they cry for ME, not some babysitter! I think I've proven in these blogs that I will never win "mother of the year" or even fall into the category of "really good mother," but my kids know that I love them more than anything or anyone and that when they NEED, I'm the one to come to because I always have and always will fulfill their needs the best a human being possibly can. I was relating to the nanny all through the book, especially at the end when she was about ready to break down because of being overworked. She wanted to quit so badly and wanted to just scream over being taken for granted and being taken advantage of, but she didn't want to leave the little boy alone. Taking care of children is THE most stressful job, but anyone with the tiniest bit of self-less-ness could never quit this job because the little people NEED the stability of at least one person whose most important purpose in life is to take care of them.

On to a different topic now -- my three older children just created a library in our downstairs family room. Actually, Joel concocted the entire system, complete with library cards, rules, a book drop off, everything. Sometimes (like yesterday), these kids can seem like MONSTERS. But sometimes they are such creative, beautiful little geniuses :-)