BB Smalls wasn’t in search of a free journey when she signed on as a nanny to Hollywood honchos, globally-renowned rock stars and bigwig billionaires.
However free first-class flights to Bora Bora, $100,000 rooms on the St. Regis Resort and bougie boating excursions alongside the Amalfi Coast are precisely what she obtained — to not point out routine buying sprees at Gucci, Chanel and Louis Vuitton — whereas on the job.
“I’ve been all over the place: Maui, Tahiti, London, Italy, Scotland, you title it,” Smalls, 44, from Los Angeles, tells The Submit.
Nondisclosure agreements bar her from spilling the secrets and techniques and specifics of her eccentric ex-bosses. However Smalls, now a married stay-at-home mother residing in Texas, says, “Nannying for the proper folks means getting paid to journey.”
She’s within the 40% of childcare suppliers who commonly globetrot, by sky, land or sea with their employers, per information from the Worldwide Nanny Affiliation. Smalls simply occurs to do it the luxe manner as a “tremendous yacht nanny.”
It’s a publish that grants kiddo execs the chance to see the sights, in addition to how the highest 1% travels, without cost.
The tremendous fortunate even get to nanny on superyachts, trip vessels spanning over 80 ft in size, that are roughly twice the size of a mean yacht. The behemoths come totally staffed with a captain and crew.
Chartering the megacruisers can price between $100,000 and greater than $1 million per week, relying on measurement, time of 12 months and onboard facilities, comparable to helipads, film theatres, Jacuzzis and gymnasiums.
However most A-list showboats like Mark Zuckerberg, who paid a reported $300 million for his 387-foot superyacht, and Jeff Bezos, along with his 417-foot, $500 million ship, hardly ever sweat over {dollars} and cents.
Ella Peters, a superyacht nanny of almost 10 years, mentioned that in peak yachting season, June by way of August, she’s usually booked for back-to-back journeys with a revolving door of well-to-do employers from NYC, Europe and the Center East.
“I do love the job,” the 28-year-old proprietor of UK’s SuperyachtNanny.co, tells The Submit. “However it’s exhausting.”
She expenses round $500 per day for her on-ship sitter companies. Nevertheless, her charges, not together with the usual “four-figure tip” she usually receives, can enhance based on the variety of youngsters aboard and their ages.
Like Smalls, Peters works for internationally recognized hotshots whose names should stay hush-hush as a consequence of NDAs. Her upper-crust shoppers routinely lease almost 300-foot-long tubs, costing over $1 million per week, for household cruises by way of the Mediterranean.
The popular path they sail is famously referred to as “The Milk Run.” On it, tycoons tour the south of France, Corsica and Sardinia, Italy — residence to Costa Smeralda, nicknamed “billionaires’ playground,” owing to its turquoise waters, fine-sand shores and chichi seaside golf equipment.
“It has all the things my ultrahigh internet price households need,” mentioned Peters.
“My favourite ‘pinch me’ second was driving myself and my 11-year-old cost on a jet ski by way of the well-known Faraglioni rocks in Capri, Italy,” the Londoner mentioned.
Nonetheless, Smalls, who lately left VIP nannying for content material creation, says working for the uberwealthy wasn’t at all times clean crusing.
“One Bel Air household needed me to nanny for them on a yacht for a complete month, however I wasn’t allowed to be seen,” she recalled of the odd demand. “If both dad or mum walked right into a room that I used to be in, I’d have to cover and maintain in place till they left the room.”
“Throughout my downtime on the yacht, I’d have to remain out of sight and be banished to my room.”
However Peters has solely had stellar experiences — and little or no downtime — whereas minding mini moguls on the waves.
“I rise up earlier than the kids and attempt to drink some espresso in peace,” Peters says. “While you’re onboard, it’s important to put in effort to get just a few moments to your self. After that, all the things is go, go, go.”
However her abilities are price each penny.
Peters comes totally geared up with pediatric first-aid coaching, police background clearance, nanny insurance coverage, water security coaching and a private watercraft license — paperwork that allow her to function jet skis and paddle boats.
And whereas their moneyed mommies and daddies play, she entertains the tots all day.
“After my espresso, I greet the youngsters within the morning as they get up, then feed them a small breakfast earlier than we do arts and crafts,” Peters started.
Relying on the scale of the superyacht, she both will get her personal room, bunks with the infants or shares residing quarters with a crew member.
“When the mother and father get up, the youngsters have a correct household breakfast with them, then we do just a few morning watersports earlier than they do a family-style buffet lunch,” continued the millennial. “Within the afternoon, when the solar is absolutely sizzling, we do extra arts and crafts earlier than doing extra water actions or stopping off at a neighborhood village for ice cream and exploring.”
“At night time, I feed the youngsters dinner whereas the mother and father put together for his or her night plans,” she mentioned of the superpacked schedule. “Then it’s time for mattress.”
Sarah Leonard, 25, a superyacht nanny from Maryland, nonetheless, tells The Submit her days on the water are extra like walks within the park.
“I spend about 4 hours a day working with the youngsters, the remainder of the time I’m capable of chill on the yacht or possibly discover,” mentioned the Gen Z.
She’s spent the previous two summers as a superyacht nanny for a South African influencer household with a bent in direction of boating round Turkey, Greece and Italy.
“I used to be working as a scuba diver in Puerto Rico again in 2023, and I noticed a Fb itemizing for a yacht nannying place and utilized,” mentioned Leonard, a licensed rescue diver and CPR skilled and former lifeguard.
For her, the childcare gig was an unpaid place that got here with the perks of having fun with an all-inclusive, saltwater tour.
And the household, comprising a mother, dad and two boys underneath age 8, handled Leonard like household, giving her a personal bed room and toilet, together with her in household meals and “gifting” her with a particular token of their appreciation on the finish of the two-month journey.
However Leonard, who’ll be touring Italy and France with new brood this summer time, says touring with little ones is the true present that retains on giving.
“I get to expertise the world by way of the eyes of those little children,” gushed the superyacht nanny. “It’s magical.”
