My nanny was originally planning to spend the week of Thanksgiving in Jamaica on her own, relaxing and clearing her mind. She wasn’t even bringing her husband along with her. When she realized that it might be too expensive to pay for a full week of accommodation by herself, she reluctantly asked her cousin if she could stay with her that week, and her cousin agreed. But what she didn’t realize would end up happening was that her cousin told a few other relatives that she would be in town, and all those relatives started creating lists of things for my nanny to buy and bring back. In addition, they also started making requests for random sums of money for our nanny to give all of them for miscellaneous repairs and expenses that were out of their budgets… that just needed to be purchased or done, of course. In the end, our nanny got so frustrated and mad at all these expectations of her piling up that she decided to cancel the flight altogether. It was originally meant to be a time of R&R for her, but it was turning out to be a huge stressor, one that made her realize that all her relatives back in Jamaica just saw her as an endless ATM.

She was mad to cancel her trip, but she also said that cancelling her trip made her more cognizant of the fact that this is the way poor people treat their relatives who are just a tad better off than them.

“If there’s one thing you tell Kaia when she grows up, tell her, ‘Don’t be poor,'” my nanny said, getting exasperated thinking about all her relatives who seemed entitled to her earnings.

I have a feeling Chris will already be telling her that outside of the nanny’s advice.