Cough up the cash, buddy! These household workers have truly seen the good, bad, and ugly while working for the wealthy. Here’s what babysitters, dog sitters, and other householder workers think about the richest customers they’ve worked for. Sit back and relax, because it’s time to spill some tea! Content has been edited for clarity.
“I Feared For My Safety”
“A couple of years ago, I worked as a live-in nanny for a young couple and their two children. The father was twenty-eight years old, and he owned his record label for Hispanic music artists. He easily made three to four million bucks each year.
The mother was twenty-six years old, and she was famous on social media for flaunting the family’s lavish lifestyle. The family lived in a fancy home in the middle of the desert, probably thirty minutes outside of the city. They designed the entire home and the surrounding property themselves. It was honestly ridiculous.
Each bedroom in the home was so big, they echoed. There were private walk-in closets in almost every room, plus ensuite bathrooms. A couple of the bedrooms had access to a wrap-around balcony that overlooked the courtyard. The home had lavish glass elevators and an indoor koi pond in the entryway. In the courtyard, there was a stage for live music performances, and a covered seating area big enough to accommodate thirty tables for parties.
The kitchen had a walk-in refrigerator and enough kitchen appliances to run a restaurant. On the roof, there was a helipad, and the father owned four helicopters. He also had a Maserati, two Ferraris, and a rose-gold Range Rover.
The family had parties nearly every weekend. They weren’t just cute, cozy, dinner parties, either. The husband and wife invited two to three hundred people to these parties. During the parties, a live band would play so loud you couldn’t hear yourself think. The men would gather around in little groups and take strange substances, while the women would stand around screaming and laughing. Some women sat gossiping at the tables as they bounced their babies on their knees.
At one of the parties, the father decided to challenge three of his guests to a race behind the house in the desert. The father wound up flipping the Ferrari, but he was fine. He was just angry the car was damaged. At another party, people began jumping from the second-story balcony to the pool in the courtyard, and somebody ended up breaking their foot.
I was always required to attend these parties to watch the parent’s children. I had to get the children juice when they were thirsty, supervise when they played with other kids, and tuck them into bed when it got late and the parents were getting too wild for the kids to see.
Every single weekend, the mother and father would fight and get into screaming matches in front of the children. Usually, the mother was mad about the father making stupid decisions while under the influence, and she had a right to be upset. Some of the things the father did were downright dangerous. The father would insist he was fine, and the wife needed to stop trying to control him. She would go to bed mad afterward, and he would stay awake until six in the morning until he finally crashed. The next day, the couple would go on as if nothing happened.
The mother was very beautiful, mostly sweet, though kind of an air-headed girl who had gotten with the father in high school. She loved to talk about how she went through highs and lows with him and had an affinity for drama and gossiping. The mother pretended to hate the constant parties, but she also loved the drama following them, too.
She was absurdly glamorous and had a private makeup artist who did her makeup every day for social media. She always had to make sure she looked her best. The mother even brought the makeup artist along on vacations. She had a ridiculous amount of clothes, and she easily spent over five thousand bucks every two weeks on shopping.
She was also very attached to her mother and visited her and her six sisters every day. In fact, the father was pretty attached to his family, too. The father had his brother sister, mother, and cousins at the home daily, and they practically lived there.
Overall, the mother was a ditzy but well-meaning person. The father? Not so much.
Apparently, the father was rude even before the money. After he got his newfound wealth, it only became worse. He loved partying, showing off materialistic things, and had no real regard for the well-being of his wife or children. He assumed they would be fine with his antics as long as he flung money at them.
The father wasted an excessive amount of money fully staffing his home so he wouldn’t have to do anything for himself. He claimed it was because he was very busy with work running the record label, but it was a lie. The father would relax for weeks straight, fly out to Mexico for multiple days, then repeat. He didn’t have a demanding schedule.
The father’s staff included two cooks, three housekeepers, an assistant for his mother and himself, a party planner, four security guards, and myself as a nanny. Seriously, he was super paranoid that somebody was going to attack the home and needed four security guards on the property at all times.
I worked for the family for around two and a half years. It was an easy enough job taking care of the children, as they were both under the age of six and were well-behaved despite the environment they grew up in. Watching all the antics in the home was pretty entertaining. It was like having a front-row seat to a real-life soap opera.
In the end, it turned out the security guards were for good reason because the house ended up getting raided by police who suspected the father was selling substances. The police never found any evidence of any crimes, though.
I quit after the police raided the home because I feared for my own safety. I felt bad for the children, and I always hoped they would do well without me.”
“You Aren’t My Friend Anymore”
“I have only babysat one time, and it was for a friend of my grandparents. All I really had to do was hang out with their eight-year-old grandson for one night. Overall, it was a pretty good night. All we did was play video games, so it wasn’t too bad.
The family wasn’t billionaire wealthy, but wealthy enough to where they left me an envelope with five hundred bucks in it and told me whatever I don’t spend on food, I could keep for myself. I thought I hit the jackpot! They were wealthy enough to have sped off in a Maserati for the dinner they were going to. Wealthy enough to have a pool, jacuzzi, and nice outdoor kitchen in their backyard. They were just an old couple with a decent amount of money, and they were taking their grandson’s parents out to dinner one particular night.
I thought to myself, ‘Well, I will splurge thirty or forty bucks on a meal for myself and the kid, and I’ll pocket the rest.’
I was seventeen years old at the time, so I couldn’t say it was a negligible amount of money. Anyway, I took the kid outside to my car across the street, which at the time, was my older brother’s Toyota Corolla.
The kid got in my car, took a look around, and said, ‘Where’s the button to move the roof back?’
Sorry, kid. No convertible feature in my Toyota, unfortunately.
The kid then told me, ‘I’ve only been in one other car that wasn’t a convertible. You aren’t my friend anymore.’
It was pretty weird. Throughout the night, he did also make some interesting ‘rich kid’ comments, such as asking if we could go to a restaurant with steak on the menu. He revealed an interesting bit about his parents and told me they were talking about having another child.
Apparently, the kid asked the dad when they were having another child, and the dad told him, ‘When mommy stops being afraid.’
Super strange to tell your eight-year-old kid, but okay.
I then learned the kid’s mom and dad divorced about a year later. I felt bad. He was a cool kid and didn’t have a spoiled vibe. More like an innocent, curious, steered wrong by his parent’s vibe. I hoped he grew up to be decent instead of taking on his parent’s influence.”
“Working For The Family Was Bizarre”
“I once worked for a genuinely insane, wealthy, family.
One time, the wife was driving through the city, and saw bathtubs on sale at a home improvement store. So, naturally, she popped into the store and bought three. As she was leaving, she saw another tub she liked and simply had to get it, too. At the time, the family wasn’t renovating the home. There was no reason she needed three bathtubs!
The family refused to throw any food away, ever. Used by and best before dates were completely ignored, to the point where I found a tin of seafood marina nearly fifteen years expired. It was disgusting, and I was shocked at just how frugal the family was.
The family had a vacation home, and a housekeeper cleaned the house three times per week. Yet, the family only visited three or four times a year. When the family didn’t visit, nobody lived there.
When the family went out to dinner, the father happily paid for the expensive meals, but not the drinks. The children, who were all teens or older, had to pay him back for their drinks. The father would often send the children reminder messages about how much the drinks cost. Yet, when any of the children offered to pay for the meal, the father didn’t accept. The family dynamic was strange.
The wife was a hoarder, and she would often take way more samples than any average person. She always made sure to take all of the shampoo and soap from hotel rooms. If she passed by the housekeeping trolley, she would steal as many as she could from there. She never used all of the samples, so I never understood why she needed them. The family had a whole bathroom closet dedicated to sample-sized products. When I checked the bathroom, there were thousands of products stored away in the closet.
Working for the family was bizarre, to say the least.”
“They Gave Me An Inch-Thick Binder With Procedures To Follow”
“The most bizarre family I ever worked for was this newly rich young family in Vienna.
The bedtime routine for the children, aged three and seven, included a spa treatment for both. I have never seen so many expensive beauty products in a child’s bathroom in my entire life. Plus, each child had a bathroom of their own.
The poor seven-year-old girl had next to no hair on her head, but I was still required to slather her in the most expensive adult shampoo, conditioner, hair mask, hair oil, and other products every single night. It seemed truly unnecessary, but it was a rule I had to follow. I didn’t even think the children liked the routine.
The children only had one tiny box of toys, and time spent playing was built into their schedule, and only took place thirty minutes after they brushed their teeth. Family dinner was typically a bland fish fillet with a ton of salad. You couldn’t find a single grain of sugar anywhere in the house or in any of the family’s food. The hot chocolate was made with skim milk and pure high-quality cocoa, and there wasn’t any sweetness to it whatsoever. It truly tasted awful, and there was no way the children enjoyed it. I felt bad because the children never got the chance to enjoy normal childhood snacks and treats.
The parents had to explain everything to me the first time I babysat their children, and they gave me an inch-thick binder with lists and procedures to follow. However, the parents failed to mention their seven-year-old daughter was still wearing diapers at night. It made for a very awkward conversation with the child, and I only hoped I was sensitive enough to not cause her any future embarrassment or trauma.
The parents were very, very weird.”
“My Boss Had A Total Meltdown”
“I worked as a personal assistant to a wealthy man. A majority of my work was helping him run his business. Most of the wealthy people I was familiarized with in my boss’ circle were very entitled, and they didn’t understand the word ‘no.’ My boss behaved the same way. I genuinely had no idea how some of my boss’ colleagues got so rich.
One time, I watched my boss throw a full-blown temper tantrum because a customer called him forty minutes before he was leaving for a vacation. No kidding, it was a total meltdown. The guy barely did any work anyway, and he went on a vacation at least once per month.
Another time, we went to a restaurant, and my boss ordered a burger. The restaurant used a sesame seed bun, and my boss didn’t like sesame seeds. He threw the burger at the cook and lost his mind again. At the time, it was extremely embarrassing to even be associated with him.
My boss always complained about how terrible his life was, even though he bought anything and went anywhere he wanted. I wished my life was half as easy as my boss’. It was hard to explain until you saw it for yourself, but money and greed messed people up.”
Taking Out The Trash
“My sister worked as a nanny for a professional basketball player and his wife.
The wife once called my sister at nine in the evening to come over to their house for an ‘urgent’ matter. When my sister arrived at the house, the wife told her the trash needed to be taken out. That was it. My sister drove over an hour to their home to take their trash out. I would have been so angry if I were her!
She had so many ridiculous stories about this family, but this story has always been my go-to.
My sister signed a non-disclosure agreement, so the basketball player’s name had to be kept under wraps. Let’s say he was in his late twenties, seemed like a decent guy, and was pretty nice to my sister. His wife, however, was a mean, entitled, and demanding woman.
My sister didn’t stay at the job for too long afterward.”
“They Didn’t Care About My Well-Being”
“I worked as a live-in au pair for two wealthy doctors. I made less than minimum wage pay. Their child was only eight months old, and both the father and the mother wanted t work full-time. We agreed I’d work thirty to forty house a week, but I was pressured to work sixty hours a week instead. The parents criticized everything I did, even little things like what time of day I did chores. Mind you, they weren’t even home all day.
In public, the mother and father appeared to be the perfect couple. Behind closed doors, they barely talked to one another. There were no conversations except about their work, and the father barely spent any time with their child. In fact, he would go as far as to eat meals alone in his home office. Au pairs were supposed to become part of the family, but there wasn’t much of a family to become a part of.
The end of my employment came after I became extremely sick and neither the mother nor father I worked for believed me. I got a diagnosis and antibiotics from my doctor, but they didn’t care about my well-being. They expected me to work the day after I was discharged from the hospital. I thought my boss’ would be a bit more sensitive since they were doctors themselves, but they truly didn’t care.
It was a real loss for me because I loved looking after their child.”
Dog Sitting Disaster
“A while back, I worked as a part-time dog sitter to make some extra money.
I would work at my regular job, then I would go stay at the person’s home and house sit or dog sit.
One time, a woman hired me and asked if I could take the week off from my regular job so I could be at home all day with her dog. I agreed as I figured the work couldn’t be too bad. However, I was very wrong.
The woman had built an extension onto her house as a room just for the dog. The reason? She thought her dog was too delicate to go outside and use the restroom. I couldn’t believe it. If only the woman had treated me as well as her dog!
Most of the people I would dog sit for told me I could eat or drink whatever I wanted in the house, and this particular woman told me the same thing. However, when I went to go make dinner, there was no food in the fridge or the freezer. There wasn’t any food in the cabinets, either.
After a bit more snooping, I realized there wasn’t anything in the cabinets. No cleaning supplies, and no linens in the closets. Nothing. It was like a ghost house.
Needless to say, I had a long week dog sitting for this woman.”
The Insanely Loyal Lawyers
“My friend worked for a tax lawyer for the obscenely wealthy. Their firm was one of those go-to places when you wanted to take advantage of tax havens.
My friend told me one of their clients regularly had issues, and he would call the only people he knew how to ask for help. His lawyers. Half of the client’s issues he needed help with didn’t have anything to do with his lawyer’s realm of expertise. However, the lawyers always helped him out, because they knew it would be easy money.
The major problem? The client bought a new jet, and he only just realized the entertainment system didn’t have a Blu-ray player, This happened about five years ago when Blu-ray players were new and all the rage. He needed to find someone who could fix the jet and find a Blu-ray player for him the same day.
He had lawyers at three different firms searching for a solution the same afternoon, and each lawyer billed the client for their time.
I couldn’t imagine having so much money to spend on such meaningless issues.”
“They Were Very Weird People”
“A couple of years ago, I helped my mother-in-law who was a maid at a very large mansion in North Carolina. It was a beautiful home with amazing architecture.
The homeowners traveled the world quite often and weren’t home too much. Their kitchen had old appliances from the seventies. The wife’s bathroom had a broken toilet seat which was duct-taped together. Needless to say, the couple was very specific about what they spent their money on.
The strangest thing? The wife refused to re-wear underwear. And, my mother-in-law and I were not allowed to go into the basement. One time, I decided to peek down there, and I was shocked at what I found.
The basement floor was covered in underwear and different articles of clothing. No lie, there were piles of clothes and underwear covering the floor at least three feet deep. We guessed the homeowner just took off her clothes and threw them in the basement when she was done with them. I couldn’t imagine being so wasteful.
I didn’t go to the house much afterward. They were very weird people.”
“It Was A Little Absurd”
“I worked as a nanny for a pretty affluent family one summer.
As a whole, the family was nice and the parents were great. However, two things stood out to me about the family.
On one occasion, the family had their friends and the friends’ three children visiting at the home. I worked an entire day taking care of the five children while the four adults just hung out in the house. They claimed they were ‘working from home,’ but they were just having drinks and chatting.
I could understand occasionally having the nanny come while they were there so they could work productively from home, but nannying five children whose parents were less than ten feet away was a little absurd.
The second strange thing the family did was that they re-used Ziploc bags. Honestly, I probably spent at least forty-five minutes each day washing, drying, and organizing their single-use plastic Ziploc bags. They could have bought reusable snack bags instead of the plastic kind, but I wasn’t going to argue with them.”
“I Never Understood How Rich People Thought”
“This didn’t happen behind closed doors, but I delivered furniture to a very rich person’s mansion once.
Upon delivery, as I went from room to room, I noticed a couple of the rooms were completely bare and empty. There wasn’t anything hanging on the walls, or any furniture in sight.
It didn’t register at first, because I figured I would be putting the furniture in the empty rooms. However, we never did.
I mentioned how strange it was to my co-worker, and they replied, ‘Maybe they ordered another round of furniture.’
The homeowner overheard and responded, ‘No, the room is staying empty. I don’t have any use for it. Same with the other rooms, too.’
I couldn’t wrap my head around a lot of things afterward. First off, I couldn’t imagine being rich enough to afford such a large house. Second of all, I couldn’t imagine having parts of the home purposefully empty. Why did he buy a home so big then? Why did he overdo it and leave rooms unused? Why did he not just buy what he needed and use it all?
I never understood how rich people thought.”
