10 Nannies Whose Compassion Came in Disguise and Quietly Saved a Family

The real victim here is your son. His dad laughed in his face for telling the truth, and now he’s traumatized by a medical mess you guys should have handled at a hospital.

Anna A.

Imagine needing life-saving help during the day and hiring a secret stranger because you know your own wife is too busy to bother with it.

Anna A.

HE DIDN'T "HIRE" HELP. WHATEVER HE WAS DOING, IT WASN'T THE WIFE'S BEING BUSY THAT CAUSED IT. HE IS OBVIOUSLY A SAHD, IF THE WIFE STAYED HOME INSTEAD, YOU ALL WOULD BE BITCHIN' ABOUT "HOW HARD HE WORKS", AND WHY DIDN'T "SHE TELL HIM ABOUT THE PROBLEM"? IF HE NEEDED THAT KIND OF HELP, HE SHOULD HAVE TOLD HER AND HIRED A REAL NURSE.

Cheryl H

Some people will always jump to the worse thought, even when you have a completely no drama explanation.

YOU ARE NOT TOO SMART, ARE YOU? NEITHER IS YOUR HUSBAND. HE HAS A MEDICAL CONDITION THAT COULD KILL HIM, OR YOUR CHILD. HE NEVER "TOLD" YOU ABOUT IT, AND HE "HIRED" SOMEONE SO HE ISN'T ALONE? WHERE DOES YOUR CHILD COME INTO THIS? IF SOME STRANGE LADY CALLED YOU ABOUT THIS, YOU WOULD NOT HAVE ANY INFORMATION TO GIVE A DR. THIS IS AN END RUN AROUND SOMETHING ELSE.

Nina Sargsyan

Let's be real, you got caught on camera with another woman and came up with the most elaborate, medical-drama cover story of all time. And you actually bought it.

This is a lawsuit waiting to happen. If that student messes up and he dies on your carpet, she’s going to jail for practicing medicine without a license.

dana martinez

You don't need a license for CPR

Daniel Madden

Ain't noone being sent to jail for cpr, student nurse or not

ALTHOUGH THIS STORY IS FULL OF HOLES AND QUESTIONS, IT IS NOT "PRACTICING" MEDICINE TO GIVE MOUTH TO MOUTH TO SOMEONE. THEY TEACH IT IN SCHOOLS, ETC... THIS KIND THOUGH SOUNDS "IMMORAL" RATHER THAN ILLEGAL.

Mouth to mouth resuscitation is basic CPR lessons taught in school. Where else do you want to do it? Mouth to nose? Mouth to ear?

THAT'S WHAT I SAID🫨

That's indeed what you said. But you also said that's it sound "IMMORAL".

So how did it sound so "immoral" to be giving a person CPR by "leaning into him when his eyes rolled back, catching him before he hit the floor, tilting his chin and breathing into him until he gasped back"?

Birdie

Best plot twist ever: from a cheating husband to a completely dysfunctional family that prefers hidden cameras over standard medical care. (edited)

Kate Wilson

Hiding a life-threatening medical condition from your own wife while traumatizing your kid into thinking his dad is cheating is toxic behavior in my opinion.

Kate Wilson

Very true. But then again, it does make me wonder if it was a toxic wife which has created caused such a toxic husband.

SHE WORKS ALL DAY, HE STAYS HOME. HE "HIRED" A "NANNY" BEHIND HER BACK. YEAH, SURE, SHE IS THE TOXIC ONE.

Hmmm... so the men who goes out to work are the toxic ones if women stays home with helpers?

HIRING ANY "HELPER" IN SECRET, IS A RED FLAG, MAN OR WOMAN. A STABLE RELATIONSHIP IS A NOT BASED ON SECRETS. KNOWING ABOUT WHAT IS HAPPENING IN YOUR OWN HOUSE, IS PRIORITY ONE.

And hiding secret cameras isn't a red flag? That's your idea of a stable relationship? That's not secretive? Lol!

Nvm... the guy's always the one at fault. Even when he's the one with the life threatening situation which he cannot or even dare not share with the wife, whose camera- hiding habit already shows just what type of character she has.

WHO SAID IT WASN'T? I AM SIMPLY ADRESSING THE ONE ISSUE.

The one issue?

Which one? Apparently it is not the one where the wife is so toxic that the husband doesn't even tell her about his medical condition, and have to hire someone to look after him. And neither is it the one where the wife hide cameras to spy on his non-existent "adulterous" affair.

Rosanne Ippolito

Bullshit

I hired Lucía off a neighborhood Facebook group because I was broke and desperate and she was available. She was like 60 something, from Guatemala, barely spoke English, my Spanish is garbage. Twins were 18 months old and I was drowning.
First week she completely rearranged my pantry and I was honestly kind of pissed because I didn’t ask her to do that. Second week I realized she had moved everything the kids needed: sippy cups, snack stuff, bibs down to counter height so she could grab things one-handed while holding a baby.
This woman had been doing this job longer than I’d been alive. She knew stuff about running a house with small kids that I hadn’t figured out after a year and a half of trying.
Third week I just stopped pretending I had any idea what I was doing and let Lucía run things. That was the week my life actually started working.

I didn’t like our nanny Claudette. She was blunt, she was bossy, she told me on day two that my son’s bedtime was too late and he was eating too much junk. I called my wife that night and said we need to find someone else.
My wife said give it a month. Within 3 weeks my kid was sleeping through the night. First time ever. Within two months, the dinner meltdowns just stopped.
Claudette wasn’t the warm, fuzzy nanny I had in my head. She didn’t do Pinterest crafts. She didn’t baby talk. She was firm and boring and consistent and my son absolutely loved her for it because what he actually needed was someone who didn’t bend the rules every time he screamed.
I wanted a nanny who would cuddle my kid. My kid needed a nanny who would say no and mean it. I was completely wrong about Claudette and honestly I think about that a lot because I almost fired the best thing that ever happened to my family on her second day.

Nina Sargsyan

You work all day and had absolutely no clue your husband was routinely collapsing on the floor? Talk about being completely tuned out of your own marriage.

This is kind of a weird one but our nanny Suki started packing my lunch. I didn’t ask her to. Her job was watching my daughter. But she noticed I was skipping meals because I’d work from home through lunch and forget to eat, or just not have the energy to make something.
One day there was a container in the fridge with a sticky note that said “for you” and I assumed my husband made it. He didn’t. Suki had been making extra when she cooked lunch for my daughter.
She did it every day for like five months. I thought my husband was doing it the whole time. I only found out because I thanked him one night and he looked at me like I was crazy.
I asked Suki the next day and she just shrugged and said, “You don’t eat.” That’s all she said about it. 5 months of feeding me and she acted like I was weird for even bringing it up.
I was dealing with postpartum depression that I hadn’t told anyone about. She never said anything about that either. She just made sure I ate.

I’m 31 and I’m writing about a nanny I had when I was 6, which probably tells you everything. Her name was Dina. My parents were going through a divorce and I didn’t understand what was happening. All I knew was that Dad wasn’t home anymore and Mom cried in the shower when she thought I couldn’t hear.
Dina never explained any of it to me. What she did was build this whole world where things felt normal. She had this thing where every day after school we’d walk to the same bench in the park and she’d ask me to tell her one good thing and one weird thing from my day. Good thing and weird thing.
It took me years to understand what she was actually doing. She was teaching me to look for good things during a time when there weren’t a lot of good things. I don’t remember most of being 6. I remember that bench. I remember Dina.

My mom had a stroke. I flew out with zero notice. Called our nanny Amara from the airport sobbing and said, “I don’t know when I’ll be back, my husband can do mornings, I need you on everything else, I’ll pay whatever, I’m so sorry.” Amara said to stop apologizing and go.
I was gone for 2 months. When I got home the house was cleaner than when I left. Fridge was full. The kids made it to school every day.
But here’s the thing I can’t get over. On the kitchen counter there was a little calendar in Amara’s handwriting. What the kids did every day I was gone. Soccer practice Tuesday. Maya lost a tooth Wednesday. Playdate on Saturday. Eli drew me a picture, it was on the fridge.
She didn’t just keep my house running. She sat down at some point and thought: “This woman is going to come home and feel like she missed her kids’ lives.” And then she fixed that.
I tried to pay her extra. She pushed the envelope across the table. I put it in her glove compartment. She sent me angry emojis. I don’t care. She earned every dollar in that envelope and the fact that she wouldn’t take it is exactly the point of this whole story.

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Kitty Mchale

A " friend" got mad at me because I couldn't babysit her kids at the last minute...I wasn't even in town. She left them at home alone...her son ended up breaking the glass on the back door and got seriously hurt. She blamed me for not watching them and said I should pay the hospital bill. Told others I was negligent because I couldn't watch her kids...when she called at the last minute and I was out of town. We're no longer friends

I didn’t realize what Ingrid had actually done until she left. While she was with us I thought she was fine. Good nanny. Kids liked her. Then she was gone and things started surfacing.
My kids set the table without being asked. They said “thank you” without reminders. They put their shoes by the door. They apologized to each other unprompted. I taught none of that. My wife taught none of that.
About 2 weeks after Ingrid left, my five-year-old cleared his own plate and said, “Thank you for dinner, mama,” and my wife and I looked at each other across the table and it hit us at the exact same time. That wasn’t us. That was all Ingrid.

My son Mateo has Down syndrome. Burned through four nannies in two years. First two quit within a week. Third lasted a month and told me she “wasn’t equipped.”
Joy showed up. Spent an hour with him. I asked how it went and she said, “He’s really funny.” Not “I think I can handle this.” Not “I have special needs experience.” She just thought my kid was funny.
She’s been with us for 6 years. Learned ASL on her own time because Mateo was getting frustrated. Drives him to speech therapy on Tuesdays.
She texts me photos during the day that are just him doing regular stuff like eating a sandwich, laughing at the dog. Not milestones. Just him being a kid.
Last year his school did this thing where each kid brought the person who made them happiest. Most kids brought a parent. Mateo walked straight past me and grabbed Joy’s hand. She didn’t know he was going to pick her.
I had to walk into the hallway for a minute. Joy thinks she’s just the nanny. She’s not. She’s the first person who met my son and didn’t see a diagnosis.

Our nanny Wei was a friend of my mother-in-law who watched our kids for cheap as a favor. When my wife lost her job halfway through the year, things got tight fast. We told Wei we might need to cut her days.
She said fine, then kept showing up five days a week and telling us she was only logging 3. We argued about it. She said she had nothing else to do on those days anyway. That was a lie and we all knew it.
Then groceries started appearing. A bag of rice here, some eggs there, always in the fridge when we got home. She’d say she bought too much or it was about to expire at her place.
When our kids grew up, they never forgot her kindness and often visited and helped her.

amy hipps

To the one getting mad at the nanny that said they "weren't equipped" sorry but that is a valid response. Not everyone can handle certain mental or physical issues individuals. Not because they think it's wrong but they just don't know what to do and literally can't adapt to it. If they don't want to then they don't have to as it's not their kid.

Our nanny Ade always put my daughter’s shoes on the wrong feet. I corrected her three times before she finally said, “I know which foot is which. She likes fixing them herself. Watch.”
She put them on wrong, my daughter looked down, laughed, switched them, and said, “I did it!” Three years old and already proud of herself for solving a problem. Ade had been building my kid’s confidence with shoes.
Years later, I finally realized how important it was to have a nanny like Ade.

Some nannies just watch your kids. Some disguise so much love and compassion into the ordinary stuff that you don’t even realize they quietly saved your family until they’re gone.

Has a nanny or caregiver ever changed your family in a way you didn’t see coming? Tell us in the comments.

Comments

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Anita Zoe

Letting a nursing student play amateur paramedic in your living room instead of seeing an actual cardiologist is natural selection at work.

Mikkie

So he treats his medical emergencies like an undercover operation. Sounds like a totally stable and mature relationship.

Andy T.

He gaslit his own kid and called him a liar just to hide a secret. Very toxic husband who wants control

Bernadette Harrison