Today, I got a call from my cousin Sara. She recently moved to Dallas and is nannying for the family I nannied for last year. She has been having alot of problems with the daughter of the family (9, and precocious) lately... Most of all, the daughter is rude, has a really bad attitude, and seems to get mad over the smallest things. As a disclaimer, you're probably thinking, oh, well, kids will be kids. No- I want to make it clear that this child exhibits the most adult set of emotions I have ever seen in a kid her age. It absolutely blows my mind. Anyway, so my cousin calls me and tells me that today they had a long chat in her car between her activities. Sara had finally had enough of the daughter's attitude and decided to approach her about it. When Sara asked her why she had been acting ridiculous, she burst into tears and told her that she just missed her dad (who is out of town for the whole week, and comes home on weekends), and that she wished that she saw her mom more often (A vice-president at a very successful locally based corporation). She went on to tell Sara that she was worried that Sara and I were going to leave her and that she wouldn't have anybody who loved her. This absolutely knocked the wind out of me. Sara launched into a conversation about how our lives have turned into the "Nanny Diaries". It is so true, though. When you take a normal job, you go to work, go home and repeat. But, with this little girl, we are actually affecting her. This little girl would be really affected if we were to walk out of her life. Which is a big responsibility. The major thing that is so upsetting to me is that it seems like her parents have no time for her. I was raised by modest parents, who had modest jobs and earned modest incomes. I can never once remember, however, as busy as they were thinking, "Why can't I spend more time with my Mommy/Daddy". There are so many amazing people in this world who are solid, and grounded, and want to be parents desperately who can never have their own kids. Why is it that we have parents who are never home, leave the raising of their kids to a nanny, and frankly are more concerned about raising "trophy children" than raising a well rounded human? I just feel so sad about this, and wish that there was something I could do. I guess that all I can do is try to be consistent for the kids and just to love on them and show them that I care... How I wish there was something more-