The Perfect Stranger: The Truth about Mothers and Nannies

by Lucy Kaylin

Lucy Kaylin has written a book that begins with the watershed moment in a mother's life--when she decides to hire a proxy to care for her children. Given that it's not only affluent women who turn to... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1582344078
• ISBN13: 9781582344072
• Release Date: May 2007
• Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing PLC
• Length: 231 Pages
• Weight: 0.95 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.8" x 5.9" x 8.6"

Customer Reviews

Comforting for a new working mom

Perfect Stranger was refreshing and insightful. As a new mom returning to work, I was overwhelmed with guilt and nervous about employing a nanny. Lucy Kaylin's necessary book examined many of the emotions I was feeling and essentially comforted me. I was able to examine my conflicts and fears with tools extracted from the both the author's and others' nanny relationship experiences set forth in the book. While no nanny is perfect (though she must be a million different things), neither is any mom. I am confident now that together with my husband, our nanny and I will raise my son with love and laughter. As for my relationship with our nanny, as Kaylin points out, while the expectation is not that our nanny be my best friend, it is the mutual expectation that there be respect, fairness and honesty.

Not just for working mom's -- anyone who has help in raising thier kids will LOVE this book!

I can't tell you how many times I laughed out loud while reading this book! It seems to be marketed towards working mom's but I am a stay-at-home mom with 3 kids under the age of three (we have a part time nanny) and I still felt as though I related to every word in this book. It is written with hilarious wit -- some parts truly hit home and were so funny that I actually marked the page to read again in the future just to give me a laugh. The book brings to light all the things that as a mom (working or stay-at-home) overwhelms and worries us as we try to stay sane while caring for our children and hiring help to give us "a break". The best is that the book points out the comedy and humor in all of it along with exploring the working relationship we have with our children's nanny's/regular babysitters. If I had to find something "bad" about the book -- it does seem to get a little wordy in the middle and the author seems to loose the wit and humor that got me pouring into the book. It also occasionally paints a stereotypical portrait of working mom's on the extreme side. For example -- the author states that when she took her kids to the park, even though she really didn't want to, she didn't know how to push them on the swings resulting in the youngest falling off... I thought that seemed at tad bit exaggerated. But when the book comes to a close the author picks back up her great wit and humor, leaving you smiling. Definitely read this book! You'll love it! After you are done reading this book another great one that will have you laughing out loud is "What's the Matter With Mommy?" What's the Matter With Mommy?: Rantings of a Reluctant Stay-at-home Mom