NFTN 21: Nanny for the Jewish Family

Out of respect for a measure of respect they gave to me, I am not going to use their real surname. Instead, I am going to call this family: The Goldblatts. There were problems with the Goldblatts, but anyone living in a small house with their employees will have them. Eventually, they tried to get more out of me than we agree to in the beginning, but it was not this way to start.

That said, I will continue my story.

On a brisk day in October 1993, I was waiting from my room, watching out of my bedroom window at the Thebault's. I was waiting for my new family to pick me up.

I told them I wanted to work for a family that treated me like a human being, and they told me they had a 10 month old baby girl, and that they both worked. They lived in Livingston, New Jersey, and were Reform Jews. They said they tried to practice some traditions but were not kosher. The father, Ken, had a small computer office where he helped fix problems as, I believe, a network engineer. He had a degree from Columbia. The mother, Mary, worked downtown, in NYC, at a large advertising agency, as a project manager. Mary had formerly been Catholic and converted, and they celebrated the Jewish holidays and Sabbat.

I thought it all sounded very interesting. I didn't care who they were and what they did, as long as they respected certain boundaries.

At last, I saw a silver-blue Toyota Camry driving down the the long driveway towards the house. I bounded out of the door with my single suitcase in hand. Ken was going to get out of the car to help me with my luggage but I asked them to stay in the car and pop the trunk--I couldn't get out of there fast enough and didn't want to delay. Ken had an apprehensive look on his face. Both he and Mary were dumbfounded, staring in silence at the estate. The first thing Ken said to me when I was in the car, before he even drove away, was, "Are you sure you want to leave this?!" gesturing towards the house. He said, "We don't have anything like this...I'm not sure you're going to like...We just have a small house..." I cut in, and said firmly, "Yes, that will be fine." Ken looked around, "I think you're nuts! I wouldn't leave this!" He drove around very slowly. While he laughed, he was clearly nervous. Mary was quiet, but I saw her look at Ken with her eyebrows raised. They were looking up and down, and left and right, as they drove away, trying to take in what they were seeing around them.

They didn't understand. I didn't even look back as we drove away. I said hello to Danit, their baby girl.

A half hour later, after winding around some roads, we came to the Goldblatt's house on the "mountain." They told me they lived on a mountain, but it was a small hill. It was a neighborhood with trees and sidewalks, American and Japanese cars in the driveways, and simple one or two-story houses, averaging about 1,500 sq. feet.

The Goldblatts had a one story with a daylight basement. It was decorated in a JC Penny's modern style, with upholstered furniture patterned in geometric blue, purple, black, and grey. I really didn't like the decor at all. It felt like an office and the colors were cool. My room was in the basement and there was a small partial window. It was the same size as my bedroom had been in Bedminster, or larger. A double bed with a grey and blue comforter. The only other rooms downstairs were the bathroom, which had only a stand-up shower, and the family room, which came with a bar and large-screen TV. Upstairs, there was a kitchen, dining room, living room, bathroom, and 2 bedrooms. No pets.

The Goldblatts told me they had a housekeeper who came in once a week to clean and that they only wanted me to do a little vaccuming, when I could, while Danit was napping. They said running the vaccum now and then would be enough, or starting a load of laundry, in addition to simply picking up after their daughter.

The Goldblatts were talkative. While they were somewhat introverted socially, they talked a lot at home. They liked music, with a large CD collection, and had a subscription to Off-Broadway and Off-off-Broadway plays in NYC. They subscribed to the magazines The Atlantic Monthly, The New Yorker, and the newspaper The New York Times. We sat around the same table and sometimes discussed politics.

Livingston was a community where the most prominent religion was Judaism. It was also well-to-do, and there were a lot of arts offerings. The Riker Hill Art Center wasn't far away, and there were local theatrical groups. While the Goldblatts did eventually exploit me by forcing me to do more housework, gradually, than we agreed to, they did respect my hour "off", at least almost always. Therefore, I was able to develop a life outside of the house to some degree and had many adventures: with the Irish-Catholic guy, the son-heir to the owner of a major NYC advertising firm, the Biker Nanny, and with my friend Kelly; I worked PT at the Riker Hill Art Center and tried out for a play as well. I learned more about music by listening to the Goldblatts CD collection, and I read all of their past issues of The Atlantic Monthly and followed the New York Times. I learned to ice-skate and I went to plays in NYC. We spent a week at a cabin in the middle of a ski resort in Connecticut; I went skiing. And I heard more stories, from other nannies, about their employers.