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: : MY LATEST BOOK : : Searching for Mary
Poppins: Edited by Susan Davis and Gina Hyams • • • • • • • • • • • |
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"If you are a
mother, a father, a child, a nanny, a prospective parent, or
merely interested in the fascinating, complicated, intense,
and poignant relationship between nannies and parents, you
will find this book very hard to put down." "This collection of 24 commissioned essays
covers the varied experiences these professional writers had
with caregivers for their children. Editors Davis and Hyams have
done a remarkable job of pulling together writing mothers willing
to bare their souls, revealing the joy, guilt, relief, and fear
of employing a nanny (the issue of the privileged concept of
hiring a nanny is not disregarded). The pieces, roughly divided
into four sections, are well written, hauntingly honest, and
thought-provoking, progressing from hiring a nanny to negotiating
a relationship with this 'other mother,' dealing with tensions
and with the end of the relationship. Woven throughout are universal
themes class, work, family, and values but the contributors avoid
preachy moralizing or sweeping generalizations. A foreword by
Melissa Block (host of All Things Considered on National
Public Radio) engages readers from the first page. With more
and more families hiring nannies every year, this work will resonate
with mothers around the country." "Davis and Hyams compile two dozen essays
by contemporary women writers exploring the many facets of 'the
nanny-mother tango.' The relationship between a woman and her child's
caretaker can be 'a complicated dance.' This collection includes
a diverse group of talents, including Susan Cheever, Marisa de
los Santos, Joyce Maynard, Daphne Merkin, Roxanna Robinson and
Rebecca Walker, writing about their sometimes wonderful, sometimes
horrible (and almost always awkward) relationships with their children's
nannies. The very intimate position of sharing the role of mother
(and sometimes a living space as well) with another woman—often
one with a vastly different background than the mother—has
been an intense experience for the authors of this collection.
While each story is different, common emotional themes emerge,
among them love, guilt, betrayal, gratitude, insecurity and loss.
Sometimes humorous and often touching, this is an honest exploration
of the well of feelings inspired by the nanny-mother relationship.
Includes a foreword by All Things Considered's Melissa
Block." "In Searching for Mary Poppins, mothers
write about their relationships with their nannies, and no, it
isn't all middle-class white-woman angsting. Editors Susan Davis
and Gina Hyams drew pieces from notable authors, including Roxana
Robinson, Rebecca Walker, Jaqueline Mitchard, Karen Shepherd and
Alice Elliott Dark, with highly individual experiences. Robinson,
for instance, recalls the moment she had it all—the handsome
husband, the beautiful baby, the stately townhouse, the fabulous
job, and the coveted French nanny. That was the moment just before
she had to fire the nanny for drinking on the job. Mitchard writes
about the farm girl she hired who was wonderful in every respect,
except for the woman's intrusion into her marriage and her determination
to indoctrinate the children in her fundamentalist beliefs. Anne
Burt's nanny was so caring and so nurturing that Burt was reduced
to stalking her by telephone when the woman left. Collectively,
these writers explore the inevitably complicated bond between mother
and caregiver." "Parenting is like sex: We're fascinated
by what goes on behind closed doors. In this case, the drama is
between mother and nanny. Sharing motherhood with another woman
is slippery and complex. This collection of 24 smartly-written
essays probes the emotional center of this relationship, and along
the way touches on issues of race, class, and immigration." |
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Copyright © 1998-2008 Gina Hyams.
All rights reserved.
Author photo by Annalena Barrett
Dragon fruit photo by Betsy McNair
Web mistress: Tana Butler