Totally Wasteful
“I was working at a client’s house. He threw away a perfectly good lobster because it wasn’t ‘big enough’ or something, then told his cook to get another one.
Also, the same dude dropped a $10,000 bottle of vino on the floor. Told his butler to grab another from stock (he had a case of them).
Darn rich people.”
Just What A 7-Year-Old Needs: Caffeine
“Nanny here: one family I worked for comes to mind with a lot of weird things, but I’ll just mention a few.
They let their 7-year-old drink coffee. By the time I left, the older kids, who were now 7 and 8 respectively, exclusively drank from sippy cups.
They exclusively ate fast food and would let each kid pick a different fast food place and sometimes even the parents would go to another. So that would total four fast food places in one night for one dinner.
I’m not sure how weird this is, but I found it strange – the dad would leave work in the middle of the day and go grocery shopping and bring the groceries home. Most of it was junk food and just sat in the huge walk in pantry or they would buy a lot of frozen products. The only thing I really saw them go through was milk – they would buy like four chocolate and four regular milk cartons and go through them really quickly.
Oh, also the 8 year old still wore diapers at night.”
A Refreshing Twist
“I worked for a beverage distribution place in a very ritzy resort area for awhile. Guy’s assistant shows up and says he needs a pallet of Evian for his boss’ house. No problem. We load it on the truck and drive it up to his house.
After unloading, we ask him where he wants it and he leads us into the garage and asks if we can help unload it. So we start downstacking and carry cases into what I thought would be the kitchen or pantry. Nope. Straight through the house to the back deck.
He was filling his hot tub with Evian.”
Their Kids Were Always Sick Thanks To Their Diet
“I’m a professional nanny and most of the families i’ve worked for long-term were upper middle class, not super wealthy (but comfortable).
I did occasional weekends for an ultra wealthy family in Dallas. The mom was a stay at home mom but did a lot of social things and ‘charity work.’ The dad supposedly was a dentist down on the border of Mexico. Even a successful dentist wouldn’t make as much as he seemed to make. They were both beautiful, in a very Dallas way. The house was an immaculate mansion, totally over the top with fountains inside and outside the house. I looked up the cost of their house on Zillow and it was $6 million, so I upped my flat rate by $4 an hour. The house was fully staffed. I was one of 8 nannies that rotated throughout the month. They had 3 housekeepers come every day but Sunday from 9 to 3 pm. They had a personal on-call chef and one for their dogs as well. They had a security guard every night from 8 pm to 6 am.
They were nice and very generous with money. They’d pay me and then give me a $500 tip. The dad just kept hundreds of dollars in his wallet. I went to their twins’ first birthday party which probably cost about 10 grand, and they tipped all of the staff at the country club $200. They’d order food all the time, and were always generous enough to buy me whatever I wanted for dinner. They’d easily order about $500 worth of food and throw 60% of it away. Drove me nuts.
The kids were fine. 1-year-old twins and a 3-year-old older brother. They strongly preferred the older boy and would take him to the country club on the weekends. I was left with the twins in their playroom, which was tiny and had no windows, I think it was supposed to be a utility closet. The kids couldn’t play in other parts of the house. They couldn’t even play in their nurseries, because they’d break/ruin all the pieces of artwork kept in the room. They also would feed the kids crappy food. You’d think if you were bringing in millions a year you’d buy some organic apples or something, but nope. They’d feed them canned peas, Vienna sausages, Cheetos and fruit cups. They were also always sick.
All three boys would have diarrhea 5-6 times a day, the entire time I knew them. I suggested they had a dairy allergy, but I was always dismissed. Oh, and they slept all the time. The twins would be in bed from 7:30 pm to 7:30 am and then nap from 9:30 to 11:30, and then nap again from 2:30 to 4:30. It seems like they just had the kids for the family Christmas card and otherwise wanted them out of the way.”
Such Refined Tastes
“I’m three years into Sous chef at a private resort in Upstate New York. Most of our guests are returning from generations before them. Wealthy. Very wealthy. We get some Congressmen, Actors getting away from the daily crap. But mostly families that are crazy rich, and four generations deep into annual visits. Insane the amount of requests. But… one that stands out as a ‘whatintheworld’? 60 something year old woman crying as loud as she can because we didn’t have the cookies she wanted. Guys, you would’ve thought she was just told someone died. Made a huge scene in the dining room. Her husband has the backbone of a jellyfish and just sat there trying to console her. ‘It’s ok honey. I’ll get you cookies. Don’t cry’. The owner went out and bought store bought cookies because we do not have time for that. WE DID NOT TELL HER THEY WERE STORE BOUGHT. She was happy by the end of the night. Yay? Fast forward to dinner the next night. Same deal. ‘Where’s my cookies?’ We gave her the same store bought cookies. Same package. ‘These aren’t the same. The baker used too much butter this time.’ Next night? ‘Oh these are much better.’ ITS THE SAME PACKAGE!! She comes every year. We all know ahead what week the ‘cookie lady’ is going to be staying w u so we can get her crappy grocery store cookies.”
The Same Ridiculous Order Every Day, Three Times A Day
“When I was a supervisor for Starbucks, we had a regular who ordered the same (extra modified) frappuccino every day, three times a day. A venti, single ristretto, 2 pump frappuccino roast, 4.5 cold bar pump mocha, 8 pump frappuccino base, nonfat, x ice, double blended mocha frappuccino with a dome lid and the extra poured into the spout with whipped cream blended in.
Writing that on a cup was very difficult.
She had to have it all the time and only liked getting them from a few stores. When she would go on road trips to her cabin, she would come in the night before and we would pre make a whole bunch of frappuccinos and not add ice or blend them. This would be so she could blend them in her car on the way there and back. I did the math, she spent over $8,000 per year on this crap.
For the record, she was an heiress and only stayed home all day watching soap operas. Plus she was a pretty repulsive person. She was very cheap, selfish and demanding, refused to tip ever, complained often and always tried getting free pastries and equipment. She complained about her taxes but was a ‘hardcore liberal.’ She was also very demeaning towards her children, calling her son slow and her daughter a fatty (in public). My niece was in her daughter’s class and I’d here real awful stories about this woman all the time.”
The Butter Was HOW OLD?!
“I used to clean my mom’s bosses house on the weekends with her. She had this civil war Era hutch in the corner of one room stocked with dishes she wanted us to move and, naturally, clean it and the dishes for her. It smelled a bit weird while we were doing it. Eventually we found the source at the back of the hutch: a butter dish with butter circa 1984 (this happened in 2014 by the way). When we were I the told her about it, the first thing she asked was, ‘Did you save the butter dish?’ Me and mom then went out and dug this sour smelling piece of porcelain out of the trash. Later on we found it being used in the fridge again…”
They Did It Their Way
“I worked in a high class restaurant in a nice hotel for a few years. We had a couple come in with their lap dog religiously every Tuesday evening for dinner. Due to health code, they were not allowed to bring their (non-service) purse poodle into the restaurant. Their solution? Request a special table be set up in a private nook of the hotel lobby so they could dine in style with their fur child. Also, they saw the menu as more of a ‘mix and match’ situation, rather than a thought out, cohesive guide to ordering, with each component of each dish tailored to complement everything else on the plate. They chose whatever sides and sauces on the menu struck their fancy, and paired them with their chosen protein, and they often ordered two different mix and match entrees each, plus a starter – They ALWAYS ordered the cheese and cracker board, no crackers, sub gluten free bread double toasted. The lady sent the first round of bread back every time. We could’ve sent the first round out burnt, and she would’ve sent it back to be toasted more, or re-sent the bread she had just sent back without doing anything to it and it would be ‘just divine’ the second time around. Plus they subbed all 4 or 5 of the local, artisan cheeses for Brie, which wasn’t even one of the cheeses that came on the board to begin with. We started keeping a wheel on hand specifically for them. Oh, and a ‘lightly seasoned, grilled chicken’ for the dog. They were polite, and delightfully odd (plus they tipped through the nose) so once we got used to most of their quirks, we were more entertained than annoyed, and enjoyed their weekly visit.”