A woman who worked as a nanny is going viral on TikTok after sharing that a family had the audacity to ask her to take care of their kids on vacation for free and had it in their heads that this would also be a vacation for her.
Elena’s (@elenacirillocomedy) video follows a stitch in which another nanny shares the “strict” boundaries she has with the families she works for.
Elena explains that she used to have a profile on Care.com—a website for families to find local caregivers, including child, senior, and pet care providers, as well as housekeepers and tutors.
One time, a family reached out to her through the site asking if Elena would join their upcoming vacation as a nanny. When Elena logically asked about what payment amount they had in mind for her services, they said, “Oh, well, we would be covering your vacation. So we’re gonna cover the flight and the hotel.”
“You think I want to go on vacation with you guys and watch your kids the entire time?” she says with an exasperated expression.
In the comments section, Elena added that the mom got mad when Elena said she would require actual payment aside from the flight and hotel.
@elenacirillocomedy #stitch with @braonain1 like f outta here #nannying #babysitting #elenacirillocomedy ♬ original sound – Elena Cirillo Comedy
The video has more than 750,000 views and hundreds of comments.
Commenters rallied behind Elena, agreeing that going on vacation with a family to take care of their kids is labor, not a vacation opportunity.
“I’m a travel nanny. You should get paid PLUS all expenses paid for!!!” one person said.
“That’s like a company sending an employee on a business trip… to do work for the company. And then not pay them because they got hotel&food,” another wrote.
“It’s not even a vacation for us as nannies though like it’s so much work. You don’t truly know your NF until you go on vacay with them let me tell you,” a third commented.
Others shared their own travel nanny horror stories.
“I had to sleep on the pullout in the hotel room with the toddler in a pack and play next to me,” one commenter wrote.
“I got asked to nanny for a 5 yr old in japan but the mom said my money would go towards flight and hotel. then if i broke rules i would be kicked out,” another claimed.
“I just got asked to work more hours but cap the days at 100$ like what?” a further user said.
The Daily Dot reached out to Elena for comment via email.
