A Former NYC Nanny Spills the Tea on How Celebrity Parents Act During School Pickups — & One A-Lister’s Entitled Actions
Nobody knows your family like the people who provide childcare for your kids. My kids’ teachers knew I was pregnant before anyone else, they know all about our family vacations, and are always up to date on our home routines — because kids aren’t shy about telling it all! So if you’ve ever wondered what […]
If you purchase an independently reviewed product or service through a link on our website, SheKnows may receive an affiliate commission.
Nobody knows your family like the people who provide childcare for your kids. My kids’ teachers knew I was pregnant before anyone else, they know all about our family vacations, and are always up to date on our home routines — because kids aren’t shy about telling it all! So if you’ve ever wondered what millionaire families are like — or celebrity parent dynamics — you gotta turn to the nanny. Former New York City nanny for three Manhattan millionaires (including two on the Upper East Side) just spilled the tea on several A-list parents at school pickups. And one will absolutely shock you with their entitled behavior.
32-year-old Stephanie Kiser’s new book Wanted: Toddler’s Personal Assistant: How Nannying for the 1% Taught Me About the Myths of Equality, Motherhood, and Upward Mobility in America is a number one new release on Amazon. It highlights her experiences watching kids from 2014-2022, including the several times she encountered famous parents during school pick-ups at The Episcopal School in the Upper East Side.
In one example, she shared that Robert De Niro was impatient while picking up his daughter Helen Grace, who he shares with ex Grace Hightower. “He did not wait in the line. He waited across the street and his driver would get out of this massive SUV and open his door,” she told The New York Post. “And they would let him go in first and he would skip the line. Maybe he was just grumpy. You weren’t going to say hi to him.”
Can you imagine just skipping the line every day to pick up your kids because you don’t want to be there? Must be nice! Kiser added about De Niro, “His nannies were formal nannies, so they had uniforms. They wore pink polos with khaki shorts. So you knew that they were the sort of nanny that was not part of the family. They were just doing their job.”
Another celebrity parent seemed to go out of her way to be nice. Kiser said that Barrymore “was by far the best” celebrity when she came to pick up her daughters Olive and Frankie. “She was an angel … I just remember so clearly one day, walking in behind her to the school, and she was stopping to say hi and wave and hug every person that works there,” she dished. It’s nice to see that her personality on The Drew Barrymore Show translates to real-life, too!
Kiser also ran into Steve Martin, when he came to pick up his daughter Mary. “Honestly, I think he thought he was a regular guy. He was very cute. He always had like a little satchel and a little hat. He was really quiet,” she said. That tracks with him too! Especially his latest character, Charles Savage on Only Murders in the Building.
Marva Soogrim told SheKnows in June that there are some differences between working for regular families and celebrity families. “Non-celebrity families keep a daily routine with lots to do. The kids are in bed by 7:30 PM and most adults are going to bed around 10 PM,” she told us. “Celebrity families have structured chaos, meaning at any given moment the whole day’s schedule can change. A celebrity client could have a work trip planned for tomorrow and last minute the trip could be postponed for a couple more days. We have to put the luggage aside and get back into our routine and activities with the baby and the older siblings.” It makes sense — it even explains how some people might feel rushed or resentful with these wild schedules.
Wanted: Toddler's Personal Assistant: How Nannying for the 1% Taught Me About the Myths of Equality, Motherhood, and Upward Mobility in America
This new book details what it’s like to watch kids for some of the wealthiest families in America.
However, some things will always be the same. In Kiser’s book, she also shared some details about some of the families she worked for, like one billionaire family who tasked her with hand-washing the pants of a 5-year-old “who s—ts his pants nearly every day, not accidentally, but spitefully,” she wrote, per The Post. “It was like an out-of-body experience, I can picture myself with my nails, trying to scrape this poop out. It was really strange because we’re in a multi-million dollar apartment… Let’s just throw the underwear out.”
Just because the family you work for has more money than the average American, doesn’t mean the jobs will be anymore glamorous! If you want more tea, check out Kiser’s new book available now!
Before you go, check out these celebrities who gotten real about their love for their kids’ nannies.
