Wealthy New Yorkers are shunning their parental duties — choosing instead to send nannies to their children’s private schools to take part in everything from “safety patrol” to accompanying the kids on their entrance interviews.
“They’re sending nannies for bake sales, book clubs, for the ice-skating group,” Amanda Uhry of Manhattan Private School Advisors told The Post. “Parents can’t be bothered two days a year for an hour.”
Nannies are working fund-raisers, designing sets for school plays and taking seats at graduations and public performances.
“Now the schools are getting angry — and other parents are getting angry. They don’t want to work the school bake sale with someone’s paid employee,” Uhry said.
Both the prestigious Marymount and Buckley schools warned parents about ditching safety patrol, a biannual duty in which parents walk students to cars and buses.
Buckley blasted in a memo on the school’s Web site: “Parents are the only acceptable option for patrol. Caregivers, housekeepers, etc. may NOT walk safety patrol.”
But one Upper East Side mom whose daughter attends The Birch Wathen Lenox School sniffed that she pays the school $40,000 a year — and can’t be bothered with such menial duties.
“These schools are exorbitantly expensive, they hit you up for school fees, donations, and then they want your time?” she huffed. “I have three kids at three different schools. If I can send my nanny, I’m happy to do it.”
Former Horace Mann admissions director Dana Haddad said schools now accept nannies at admissions interviews because kids tend to perform better in front of them.
“When I was a director of admissions and children would act up, I would tell parents, ‘Don’t worry, send them back with the nanny,’ ” said Haddad.
“Sometimes, the parents are so high-maintenance. you almost rather see a nanny,” she added.
But other advisers warn that sending a nanny can be the kiss of death when applying to the ultra-competitive schools.
“Even if schools say it’s fine to send caregivers on an admissions ‘play date’ interview, it really isn’t fine and indicates a lack of interest or poor judgment on the parents’ part,” said education adviser Terri Decker of Smart City Kids.
Still, many private schools accept that nannies are more likely to represent the family and are trying to make them feel welcome.
“We do a caregivers breakfast. We take pictures of them with the kids, and I cannot tell you how much they appreciate it,” said Epiphany School Headmaster Wendy Levey.