Did you grow up with a nanny/governess/maid/servants etc?

liah · 20-04-2011 08:38PM #1

Has anyone grown up with a nanny, governess, maid, or help of any kind in their home, and if so, how were the help treated and how do you view them in comparison to your family or friends? Stories/experiences in general would be welcome.

Kind of an obscure question, I know, and I'm not even sure I'll get any responses, but I'm curious, I grew up poor and want to know what the other side is like

Anyone?

El Guapo! · 20-04-2011 08:39PM

Yep.
I called her Mam :pac:

Wolfe Tone · 20-04-2011 08:40PM

They can also tell us how that silver spoon tastes.

strobe · 20-04-2011 08:41PM

Ahhh so that's how they got you to move to Ireland Liah?

'Come to fair Eire where every home has an army of servants and every girl can live like a princess'

Fluorescence · 20-04-2011 08:42PM

Ye what?

whatdoicare · 20-04-2011 08:43PM

Oh lahdee dah!
:pac:

liah · 20-04-2011 08:43PM

I'm not saying it's common or anything! :pac: I just watched The Innocents last night and got thinking about the whole governess thing and figured I'd ask on the off chance there'd be someone who'd grown up like that. Always wanted to know what it'd be like.

Chris P. Bacon · 20-04-2011 08:45PM

Yes i did when my mam sent me to Bel Air,his name was Jeffrey.

bonerm · 20-04-2011 08:47PM

Our butler Stevens was a capital fellow. Always made sure I got an ironed copy of the Beano before my chauffeur drove me to school.

Unfortunately after many years service Steven's collapsed dead whilst serving us dinner. It's how he would have wanted to go.

Superbus · 20-04-2011 08:50PM

I'll admit to having a comparatively wealthy upbringing, but even so, it wasn't a possibility or even thought of. I don't think Irish families have a place for someone like that, the 'mammy' is too all-encompassing when it comes to childcare etc.

hondasam · 20-04-2011 08:50PM

strange question for us peasants !

pq0n1ct4ve8zf5 · 20-04-2011 08:51PM

Not exactly, but we had a caravan beside our house and my dad was occasionally in the habit of finding strangers in the pub who were backpacking or whatever and letting them live there in exchange for child-minding. And our neighbour's barn looks like it's part of our property so people would sometimes come knocking asking if they could stay there and my dad would get them that way. Only happened three or four times but still.

Buceph · 20-04-2011 08:51PM

Both my parents work (and worked when I was a kid) full time. So I went to a child-minder from when I was three months old, until I was about 12. All day before I went to school, she brought me to a playschool near her house when I was three and four, then after school between the ages of 4 and 12, and all through the school holidays. My brother and sister went to her between the ages of three months and 15 or so. They pulled me out early at the age of 12 because I was getting spoiled.

She looked after us really well and is like a second mother. I haven't seen her in a while, but she'll always have a place in my heart, and the same goes for my brother and sister.

Edit: Although I don't think this thing is fairly uncommon in Ireland. There's loads of women with kids who are teenagers or older, who take in young children to look after after school and during the holidays, or while the kids are toddlers. I know my aunt does it for another child, and I've met a few people who do something similar, either with their own kids, or taking in other people's kids. It's not like an aristocratic British nanny at all. Just something older women do to get a bit of cash, and to have kids around when their own children are grown up. Almost like a surrogate Mammy because they like looking after kids.

Son Of A Vidic · 20-04-2011 08:57PM

Herself provides a truly amazing French maid service every now and again.

CrazyRabbit · 20-04-2011 08:58PM

The Mods/Admins on boards voluntarily serve me by keeping the site running smoothly.

They my bitches!

blaze1 · 20-04-2011 09:04PM

mmmywhy yesssssssssss.

You, sir, are a cad and a bounder.

pragmatic1 · 20-04-2011 09:07PM

No but my mother used to look after kids and my sister gets a few hours a week for her austic son. Really dislike the terms "maid" and "servant".

sunflower27 · 20-04-2011 09:08PM

A friend of mine once rented a room in a share house in London. One of the guys was South African and had grown up with maids and a nanny etc.

He had no idea how to use basic appliances like a washing machine or dishwasher. He was also really untidy. He'd just leave stuff everywhere as I suppose he was used to someone picking up after him. He was late 20s....

Mena · 20-04-2011 09:09PM

We had live in maids from when I was around 4. Always treated as part of the family.

The only negative memory I have was when one cooked and ate a rabbit we had roaming the garden, I was young so it freaked me out.

Dudess · 20-04-2011 09:11PM

Corvus Maximus wrote: »

Herself provides a truly amazing French maid service every now and again.

Your mam does? :eek:

AckwelFoley · 20-04-2011 09:13PM

My mother was my nanny, and now has passed on that task to my lovely missus.

Arse wiping duties not yet catered for, but im working on it.

dpe · 20-04-2011 09:14PM

sunflower27 wrote: »

A friend of mine once rented a room in a share house in London. One of the guys was South African and had grown up with maids and a nanny etc.

He had no idea how to use basic appliances like a washing machine or dishwasher. He was also really untidy. He'd just leave stuff everywhere as I suppose he was used to someone picking up after him. He was late 20s....

Lived in South Africa when I was small (2-5). Don't really remember much, but yes we had a maid. We weren't posh or anything (my Dad was an engineer in a factory over there), but back then it was normal. Came back because my Mum didn't like the Afrikaaners and me and my brother would have ended up conscripted when we grew up (this was all in the apartheid days).

silverspoon · 20-04-2011 09:30PM

Wolfe Tone wrote: »

They can also tell us how that silver spoon tastes.

What kind of girl do you take me for? :mad: :pac:

Poor Craythur · 20-04-2011 09:36PM

Buceph wrote: »

Edit: Although I don't think this thing is fairly uncommon in Ireland. There's loads of women with kids who are teenagers or older, who take in young children to look after after school and during the holidays, or while the kids are toddlers. I know my aunt does it for another child, and I've met a few people who do something similar, either with their own kids, or taking in other people's kids. It's not like an aristocratic British nanny at all. Just something older women do to get a bit of cash, and to have kids around when their own children are grown up. Almost like a surrogate Mammy because they like looking after kids.

Yeah, child-minding is common in Ireland and I wouldn't consider it "posh" to send your child to one. My neighbours did that with their kid because they both worked full-time and, believe me, these people have no airs and graces.

And my Aunt-in-law did child-minding pretty much for the reasons you outlined.

Oh, in one of my student houses, we had a cleaner come in. La-de-da!

She was a fellow student, it was a handy little earner for her and we became friends. I deigned to become friends with the help! :P:D And she just did common areas and we didn't leave stuff lying around for her to clean up. She just did dusting, hoovering, that kind of thing. Our landlords wanted a cleaner and paid for her, so meh!

Fluorescence · 20-04-2011 09:38PM

I've always assumed Pighead is super rich and has a butler who types out all his posts for him. It'd explain much....

Solnskaya · 20-04-2011 10:04PM

It's AH, OP you'd be better off asking if anyone on here grew up in a house, or was it grass verge all-round.

Acoshla · 20-04-2011 10:22PM

I went to a child minder every goddamn day for 7 or 8 years, after school and every bloody weekday during the summer, from 8.30am until 6pm, absolute hell of a place. I left when I was 11 after I got sick of my child minder fecking off into town after school and leaving ME to mind her son, wtf?

My mother and her siblings had a nanny all their lives, they got her when my mother (first baby) was 2 weeks old and she stayed with the family for donkey's years, came to all the weddings and everything when the kids grew up. My grandmother did pretty much no minding after those first 2 weeks, not her cup of tea, much better with adult children than when they were kids, which is ironic because she died when my Mum was 25 and the others were 22, 18 and 14.

admiralofthefleet · 20-04-2011 11:23PM

my mate called me posh the other day

needless to say, i immediately had the butler show him the door

miss no stars · 21-04-2011 12:10AM

dpe wrote: »

Lived in South Africa when I was small (2-5). Don't really remember much, but yes we had a maid. We weren't posh or anything (my Dad was an engineer in a factory over there), but back then it was normal. Came back because my Mum didn't like the Afrikaaners and me and my brother would have ended up conscripted when we grew up (this was all in the apartheid days).

I think that's fairly common of anywhere that's ex-colonial territory. I lived in Malaysia briefly (from age 4-5) and we had an "Ama", who was essentially a nanny (looked after and cooked for kids) as well as cleaned the place. Wasn't uncommon really.

Ruu_Old · 21-04-2011 12:17AM

No but reminded me of a common quote from the Irish mammy handbook.

"What did your last maid die of?" :mad:

Stained Class · 21-04-2011 12:17AM

liah wrote: »

Has anyone grown up with a nanny, governess, maid, or help of any kind in their home,

Anyone?

Yes OP & welcome the the world of Class!:D

Did you grow up with a nanny/governess/maid/servants etc?

Comments