Working at least 12 hours a day, seven days a week, with a week off in return, might sound closer to life on an oil platform than in a nursery. But it is increasingly the reality for a select group of nannies employed by the super-rich, who can earn US$200,000 ($281,000) a year, an hourly rate on par with a private-equity associate, according to a report by The Economist.
A decade ago, such highly paid roles were rare. "We used to get a lot of: 'Oh, I'm not paying that'," says Anita Rogers, founder of British American Household Staffing (BAHS), an agency that places nannies, governesses, butlers and chefs in wealthy households. "Now it is quite the opposite."
Clients are demanding nannies who have trained at the best academies, speak several languages, hold degrees from elite universities and are willing to travel constantly and work very long days. "They want nannies that have experience on yachts and jets," Rogers says. "It's just a given."
The top-of-the-market nannying boom has become something of a cottage industry. While some institutions, such as Britain's Norland University of Early Childhood, have been training childcare staff for more than a century, many of the agencies wealthy parents now use are much younger. BAHS was founded in 2012, alongside competitors such as Adventure Nannies (2007) and Morgan & Mallet (2015). Rogers says she now has 7,000 clients.
The fundamentals of the job remain familiar: bottle-feeding, preparing meals and trips to the playground. But the surroundings can make it almost unrecognisable. A nanny is often one of a dozen staff rather than the sole employee, and travelling with the family means private yachts and jets. Rogers says not everyone is cut out to thrive in an environment that can be "like Succession", and that the extreme wealth can be a lot for someone who has never been exposed to it.