Kissy Kissy

This incident is one of those awkward moments I got caught up involving dads of the children that I look after. No! I didn’t go fishing for an illicit affair between a dad and I. Just read on and drop me a comment to tell me what you think.

The first family that I ever worked for as a nanny introduced a couple to me, hoping that I would babysit for them occasionally. The couple were expatriates from England, temporarily living in Melbourne while the husband was working for a big well known company. At the time, they had two boys – Conroy and Benjamin.

I started off babysitting the boys occasionally when the parents went out in the evenings. The couple was friendly but I sensed that their relationship was somewhat strained right from the start. The boys were easy to look after. Baby Benjamin had kidney problems and was on medication. Conroy was very chatty and quite bossy at times. Although he was only 2.5 when I started, he talked more or less like a pre-schooler. I remembered being told that he aced an interview to join a local Kindergarten in the new school year. Apparently the teacher was very impressed by his abilities. Stella reminds me of Conroy very much. After a couple of months, the mother negotiated to hire me on every Wednesday afternoon. She learned from her friend that I was working half days on every Wednesday. She wanted someone to be there for the boys while she played tennis. I was happy to do so because her house was within walking distance of the other family that I worked for. I remember enjoying the walk over there after lunch.

On a sunny afternoon not long after this arrangement was made, I arrived at the house and noticed immediately that it was very quiet. The boys were already napping. It was usually my chore to get them ready for nap time. I sat down in their living room, flipping through their English magazines. The boys’ mum came to say goodbye to me and told me that she would be back at around 5 pm. I noticed that she looked teary. After she left, I moved to sit in the kitchen to get closer to the baby monitors. Within minutes, I heard someone coming down the stairs and I immediately thought that Conroy must be up to something mischievous. I decided to meet him at the stairs but as I neared them I realized that the footsteps were too heavy to be that of a toddler. I looked up to find the boys’ dad. He greeted me with a big smile and then headed straight for the front door. He opened it slightly and told me that he was expecting his secretary. I stood there wondering why he was home at that time of the day and why his wife didn’t inform me that he was home. Because he was rushing around, I just left him and went back to the kitchen.

There was a knock at the front door and I went to see who it was. Standing there was a young woman with a smile that disappeared very quickly when she saw me approaching. (One should never waste any efforts flashing their beautiful smiles at a lowly nanny.) After she identified herself, I invited her to come in and informed her that the boys’ dad was still upstairs. It was only then that I noticed the luggage in the hallway. Before I could offer her a drink, he came down the stairs and had greeted her, whispering to her that the boys were napping. He went over to her and gave her a big kiss! No, it wasn’t just a peck on the cheek. It was a long steamy one on the mouth! I knew my position. I walked away, removing myself from the scene ASAP. I am not sure if he was aware that I was standing nearby when it happened but she knew I was right there.

I sat at the kitchen flipping through the day’s paper, pretending really hard that I hadn’t seen anything that had just occurred. He came in to get himself a drink (she had declined his offer) and didn’t give me immediate eye contact. He seemed to be behaving like a super excited high school boy. Just before he left though, he told me that he was on his way to Sydney and then Hong Kong a couple of days later. He made a comment about how fast asleep the boys were and told me to tell them that daddy would call later that evening. I then waved goodbye to them from the front door.

As soon as I shut the front door, I ran up stairs to check on the boys. I suddenly saw the need to check on them. They were both fine, sleeping soundly in their own bedrooms. Until they got up, I just couldn’t stop thinking about what I had seen. I debated as to whether to tell their mum. It was a difficult afternoon. Conroy looked quite like his dad and every time he approached me, he reminded me of him instantly. I tried to carry on as usual, taking them out for their walk and then playing with them in the family room and back yard until their mum’s arrival home. I didn’t know what happened but when we heard her arrival I decided right then that I would not tell her anything. The boys greeted her lovingly and she came in to see me asking about their afternoon.

I just couldn’t tell her what I saw. With the dad off working interstate and then Hong Kong I just couldn’t bear knowing that she would be stuck at home with the two boys crying her heart out. That day I saw first hand how lonely it can be for expatriates living in a foreign land. Okay, England is quite similar to Australia in the eyes of most people but I don’t think Melbourne was their ‘home’ after just 6 months. I knew also that the boys’ mum was not coping really well. When I was dropped off for a brief interview before I started babysitting for them, she came to the front door in tears. I was ushered to the kitchen while she cried to the phone. She sounded very upset about being left to deal with everything on her own and yearned to go home (referring to England). After she hung up the phone, she excused herself before our conversation. Before I left, she pleaded that I should not tell her friends about what I heard. I didn’t tell anyone until now. The family has since returned to England.

It is hard to start a new life in another country. It is even harder when the family is falling apart because one important member is ‘busy’ somewhere else.