Nannies

How I went through eighteen nannies for one little boy before I found perfection in a former Marine Sergeant named Margaret

From the moment Elizabeth Fuller took her newborn son in her arms, she was determined that he have the best care. Naturally, that meant a nanny, someone like Mary Poppins, maybe. But when Beatrice the nanny arrived from London she turned out to be a spiky-haired Cockney more suited to tending a head shop than a small child. Fortunately Beatrice soon left the Fullers for a rock-and-roller with hot pink and lime-green hair. That was just the beginning of the adventures Elizabeth Fuller chronicles in Nannies. She introduces Holly, a bright, energetic Canadian with a parrot who could let himself out of his cage at will and wreak havoc on the Fuller household. And Darlene, who knew all the answers on "Jeopardy," but couldn't remember to change a diaper; and Mrs. Kibble, a mature lady from Alabama who heard voices and departed pursued, she believed, by the CIA; and Mary the Philanthropist, who sent off the household appliances to her relatives in the Philippines; and Ginger, whose PMS put her out of commission twenty two days of the month. It took eight years and eighteen nannies to find Margaret, the former U.S. Marine sergeant, who shared a small boy's thirst for blood and heavy artillery and soon won the hearts of the entire Fuller family. Nannies is a funny, loving and affectionate memoir of one woman's search for the perfect mother's helper.

Elizabeth Fuller is the author of nine nonfiction books and a novel. She is the playwright of the Off-Broadway play "Me and Jezebel" which is currently being performed in theatres across the United States and in several European cities. She is an Op-Ed contributor to the New York Times. She lives with her husband in Weston, Connecticut.