Northshore Nannies Share the Big Screen Story

THE NANNY DIARIES - The Weinstein Company

The north shore Chicago is known for its affluence and high-paid nanny jobs. Subparents are in high demand in these parts, and at Trinity International University (TIU) there are plenty in supply.

Both female and male TIU students find job postings for babysitting and subparenting on MyTrinity online. Just Monday over two-dozen want ads were posted at a minimum of $10 an hour.

“We are a happy, fun-loving family with three adorable boys,” wrote a mom from Deerfield. “Looking for someone to play with and help with homework from 4:00 – 7:00.” The pay rate is $10 -$12 and the mom is usually home but she “needs an extra set of hands.”

References and a car are commonly requested, but not always required.

Local suburb parents have paid up to $14 cash an hour while students pocket tax-free income. Money is never a problem, but the hours add up, the favors increase in inconvenience and the pressure to be available always becomes overwhelmingly stressful.

Two anonymous TIU Seniors, Nanny A and Nanny B, are seasoned childcare professionals of the area. They worked nearly 30 hours a week during the summer and have cut that number in half while taking classes spring semester.

Both are familiar with working while the parents are around, and Nanny A has experienced babysitting children with an incompetent father.

“He can’t take care of his own kids, he can’t even put them to bed,” said Nanny A. “The mom cooks some times, but we usually order food for take-out. I clean up more than she does, they have a cleaning lady, and she bribes her kids. They seriously can’t take care of their kids on their own.”

Nanny A was called out of class 11 a.m. Tuesday to drive to the children’s house, grab wipes and diapers, a change of clothes, and water bottles for everybody, get to Portillos at 11:30 a.m. and save 16 seats. She is paid $12 an hour.

Nanny B usually shows up cook breakfast for the kids while the mom works from home. She has learned that “you can do anything with money.”

“Last summer the mom accidentally messed up the t-shirt designs for her daughter’s birthday and paid-off the Marriot front desk guy to reprint the corrections at Kinkos within the hour,” said Nanny B. That mom got those prints in time.

During the summer, Nanny B spent a lot of time at a clubhouse pool with her kid, and was scorned for repeating swimwear.

“I wore little sundresses and my cute sunglasses – I can't look bad in front of these crazy women who are never seen in anything but the latest fashion in tennis wear,” said Nanny B. She gets paid up to $18 an hour.

The TIU nannies have enough anecdotes to fill a book, but they are all about six years too late.

In 2002, two New York University graduates teamed up and published a novel about their combined eight years of upper eastside Manhattan babysitting that paid for college tuition and loans. Newsweek announced the novel as a “phenomenon.”

Authors Nicola Kraus and Emma McLaughlin’s New York Time’s bestseller “The Nanny Diaries” played out on the big screen last year starring Scarlet Johansson as Nanny.

The movie and book are fiction versions of Nanny’s experience at an upper class home with the X family: an absent, unfaithful and workaholic father, and a grossly self-seeking mother who does not cook, clean or care for her son, a neglected four-year-old boy.

Athletes Use Fruit & Vegetable Supplements

A dietary supplement wholesaler urged the Trinity International University (TIU) women’s soccer team to eat more fruits and vegetables during a lecture Saturday.

Health professionals and clinical research support the many healthful benefits of Juice Plus (JP), according to a company representative Lynne Page, who gathered the female athletes in the Meyer Sports Complex conference room.

The usual morning soccer fitness testing and indoor practice was lengthened by a yoga session in the foyer with instructor and national ranking triathlete Joann Della Torre, who swears by the dietary supplement. A complimentary fruit buffet was provided at the sales pitch that turned six female athletes into Juice Plus customers – a four-month $39.75 per month commitment.

Juice Plus claims to be the next best thing to fruits and vegetables and does not label it's product as a vitamin supplement. We are a whole food based product providing nutrients found in seventeen fruits, vegetables, and grains, said Page.

In 1992, the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) released the food pyramid that recommended 3-5 servings of vegetables and 2-4 servings of fruit. In 2005, the USDA released the new “MyPyramid,” which was only a visual redesign of the former— the only difference was the added recommended amount of physical activity.

Juice Plus pushes for 7-13 servings of fruits and vegetables every day, and attempts to link American eating habits to the national rise of cardiovascular disease, cancer and infertility.

Page presented a two-year old MacDonald’s Happy Meal and the only thing to show for its age was the wrinkled and ripped bag. The hamburger bun was absent of mold and the patty had not been decomposed – bacteria won’t eat the fast foods Americans shove their faces with.

Fruits and vegetables, though, are dubbed today’s new fast foods – they are small, easy to pack, and perfect for snacking on between meals.

“Fruits conveniently come in their own natural wrapper,” said Page. The women’s soccer team was delighted to learn that the kiwi fruit skin was edible and healthy, although the texture wasn’t appetizing.

Studies show that people should get their nutrients by eating actual food products and not supplements. Page recognized that incorporating more servings of fruits and vegetables into a diet can be difficult and expensive, especially to TIU students who rely on the food vendor Sedexho as their main food source. Although it is not a substitute for the real thing, Juice Plus serves as a “convenient, affordable, and natural” supplement for the extra needed servings.

TIU men’s basketball Head Coach Marc Davidson has his familyon Juice Plus. His five kids, all under the age of 12, participate in a children’s research program that allows them to take the supplements for free. Davidson and his wife take the capsules while the kids take the gummies and chewables.

“My taste buds have changed and crappy food doesn’t satisfy me,” said TIU Physical Therapy major Laura Della Torre, who has been on JP for three years and became a JP representative three months ago.

Since taking the supplement, Della Torre desires foods rich in nutrition and has experienced an increased energy level. She suffered chronically from Mononucleosis all throughout high school and into her freshman year at TIU, but since taking JP she has been Mono-free.

“Juice Plus in only ten bucks a week,” said Della Torre, “And that’s manageable when you think about all the crap-food you buy in a week.”