Searching for Mary Poppins Women Write About the Intense Relationship Between Mothers and Nannies

by Davis, Susan; Hyams, Gina

• ISBN13: 9781594630231
• ISBN10: 1594630232
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2006-09-21
• Publisher: Hudson Street Press

Summary

Twenty-five bestselling and award-winning female writers explore the emotional minefield of mother-nanny relationships From coast to coast, articles and commentary on the new nanny culture abound. Nanny novels have captured public imagination to bestselling results, and thousands of how to hire a nanny” guides are purchased every year. But no book has addressed the unique intimacy and intensity of the nanny-mother relationship through narrative with the depth and sensitivity found in Searching for Mary Poppins.Susan Cheever, Marisa de los Santos, Joyce Maynard, Daphne Merkin, Jacquelyn Mitchard, Roxana Robinson, Rebecca Walker, and Elizabeth Graver, along with seventeen other leading women writers, explore the nanny conundrum, delving into the complex issues that today’s mothers experience when they turn the care of their children over to a stranger. Raising questions that reach beyond money, race, class, gender, immigration, and legality into the darkest areas of love and fear that a mother feels, they offer viewpoints both rivetingly disparate and hauntingly familiar.Providing hope, solace, and welcome perspective on this one-of-a-kind relationship, Searching for Mary Poppinssheds light on why nannies make us think so hard about who we are and what we want. BACKCOVER: 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.” —Susan Orlean, author, The Orchid Thief This marvelous, often moving, collection of essays contains at least two deeply comforting lessons: one: there are no perfect nannies; two: there are no perfect mothers. How miraculous then, that so many of us manage to produce perfect children. And, with insights from this book, they will multiply.” —Susan Stamberg, Special Correspondent, National Public Radio Deeply personal and cumulatively political, these powerful essays are cautionary tales, love letters brimming with gratitude, dark confessions. They are full of true heartache, hard-earned wisdom, and inspiration.” —Julianna Baggott, co-author, Which Brings Me to You

Author Biography

Susan Davis (right) has worked in public radio for more than a decade and is currently a senior producer at North Carolina Public Radio/WUNC in Chapel Hill, North Carolina.

Gina Hyams is the author of several books on travel and the arts. Her work has also appeared in Newsweek, Salon.com, and San Francisco magazine.

Table of Contents

Foreword
Melissa Block	xiii
Introduction
Susan Davis and Gina Hyams	xix
PART ONE SEARCHING FOR MARY POPPINS: THE HUNT
The Natural
Marisa de los Santos	3	(9)
You, Ceci
Lauren Slater	12	(16)
The Story of Robbie and Velma
Jessica Neely	28	(11)
Mammy Poppins
Kymberly N. Pinder	39	(11)
My Nanny, My Self
Jane Meredith Adams	50	(13)
Finding Mary
Joyce Maynard	63	(10)
PART TWO SISTER SUFFRAGETTE: IN IT TOGETHER
The Nanny Conundrum
Susan Cheever	73	(7)
The Unflappable Lina G.
Karen Shepard	80	(8)
Sisters
Marina Budhos	88	(11)
Something to Tell You
Elizabeth Graver	99	(14)
Till Faith Do Us Part
Jacquelyn Mitchard	113	(11)
The Best Laid Plans
Elissa Schappell	124	(21)
PART THREE A SPOONFUL OF SUGAR: TAKING THE BAD WITH THE GOOD
Dumped
Pamela Kruger	145	(10)
Wildfires
Ann Hood	155	(8)
In His Memory
Andrea Nakayama	163	(14)
The Company of Strangers
Caroline Leavitt	177	(10)
The Forever of Remembering
Meg Waite Clayton	187	(11)
Nanny Dearest
Daphne Merkin	198	(17)
PART FOUR TILL THE WIND BLOWS IN FROM THE WEST: DEPARTURES
Missing June
Suzanne Berne	215	(12)
Inflammitis of the Affluentitis
Rebecca Walker	227	(9)
Madame
Roxana Robinson	236	(13)
The Long Good Lullaby
Alice Elliott Dark	249	(9)
The Other Mother
Anne Burt	258	(9)
Tina
Katharine Weber	267	(10)
Acknowledgments	277	(2)
About the Contributors	279	(10)
About the Editors	289