The reason I titled this book “your lot in life”, is because several years ago, I paid my rent babysitting for multiple families in Manhattan. Many of them wealthy and/or famous. Rent in the city is mind bogglingly-high, especially over the last 10 years. At the time, I was still pursing another career in film. I’ve since switched to photography, my first true love. Some of the families I worked for were great, but taking care of other people’s children never felt quite right to me. I did become quite close with some of the kids. Which I am sure I will get to later.
During the height of my babysitting days, I was walking with one of the moms I babysat for. This particular mom was wealthy via her husband, lived in an amazing apartment, and was not a bad person. However, she had no idea I was in fact older then she was; (I look like a baby, thank you round face!), and I kept that to myself. But that also created a dynamic where she thought she could school me, I suppose. This particular day, I was discussing work with her, and what she said made me want to stop in my tracks and tell her to please continue on without me, but I didn’t. She said to me, “I believe your lot in life is to be a nanny”. Now; I am not knocking being a nanny. However, my entire life I have been working toward an artistic goal. I mean from since I was a kid. I wanted to create my art in some form, as a career. That was the WHOLE reason I moved to Manhattan. It was the ENTIRE reason I was working so many hours in shitty jobs (literally, lots of diapers), to pay the rent while I pursued my artistic career.
“Your lot in life is to be a nanny”. Boy was I pissed off. How dare this woman who lived in the fanciest apartment I’d ever seen in NYC put her nose down to me? She wasn’t even earning the money to pay for that apartment. Her husband did. I too, could marry up financially; that wasn’t my “lot in life”. I want to work for it. Earn it.
But after some time passed, I began to appreciate that she said that. It gave me a much needed push. I still think of that whenever I start to slack off. So, thank you, privileged mom. My lot in life may not be to take care of other’s children while they pursue their goals, but I appreciate hearing that it looked like I wasn’t working hard enough, because maybe I wasn’t.
There is more to this story, but I really wanted to get that out.
xoxo
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