A note from our co-founder, Shenandoah Davis

Earlier this week, to our overall chagrin, dismay and rage, Hulu, Disney and Freeform announced their next big hit show: “Million Dollar Nannies”, which in the byline of the announcement from The Atlantic is described as following “hot young babysitters in Ibiza.”

Listen.

For anyone who’s been following the universe of domestic workers now or anytime recently, you know there’s been a lot of meaningful discourse happening lately. Our industry has long been plagued with a lack of representation and equality, and the last few years in particular have been fraught with scandals playing out on Nannygram and Nannytok. It’s no secret that our industry is fraught with every-ism that exists, and that many businesses have historically gotten away with practices and behaviors that are at worst major EEO violations, and at best — cringe. We’ve spent a lot of time engaging in those conversations, and in a couple of choice moments, have found ourselves as the subject of them (we’re here to learn.) On social media, the show announcement is already filled with comments from many nannies we’ve already gotten to know, who are eager and horrified to watch but already flagging up concerns that these depictions will not be realistic, and that nannies and families who are seeking this level of being in the public eye may not have become nannies, or #nannytok influencers, for the right reasons.

However — nothing that has stirred up controversy and conversations the industry rings with quite the same tone as a television show called “Million Dollar Nannies.”

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Our Questions (And There Are Several)

We’re missing a lot of information, and as reasonable folks, we’re here to hold judgment (and hold a watch party — because who doesn’t love a watch party.) But right out of the gate:

What is a “million dollar nanny”? 

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Is it a person who is a nanny and has a net worth of a million dollars? Is it a nanny who makes a million dollars a year? Please explain.

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It is 2026. How can someone write an article about nannies and put the word “babysitters” in their byline? 

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MUST WE SAY MORE? If anyone had Googled “nanny vs babysitter” before submitting this article for publishing — this would have immediately been shot down. I know our industry is underrepresented and poorly misinterpreted by the press, but come on.

Lala Kent let the world know what the difference between a nanny and a babysitter is.

Do better. 

There are no more excuses for anyone in media.

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This show has been cast with “influencers from NannyTok.” 

We get that many nannies (including a lot of folks we know!) have created professional nannying social media accounts in order to find a vehicle to share some of the wisdom and knowledge they’ve gained with folks who are newer to the industry. We also know that sometimes the content they are consuming and sharing includes personal opinions and judgments that may not be backed up by science or anything concrete. Another thing we understand and notice is that a lot of times these videos are filmed in private clients’ homes without an obvious permission that anyone has consented to their kids, their voices, their homes, their vehicles, or anything else being featured in these videos. In fact, more and more families are specifically requesting to not be introduced to nannies who are involved in #nannytok or trying to build a platform as a nanny influencer. Which makes sense — most influencers are not building a brand off of their employers’ wealth, their homes, or their lifestyles, and most employers are not bringing someone into their household in such a trusted position or giving them access to the most valuable and vulnerable areas of their lives with the intention of having those broadcast across the Internet.

Realistically (sorry), from what we’ve seen, anyone who is trying to make a career off of #nannytok or by becoming a nanny influencer is either already not actually a professional nanny who can produce exceptional references, or very quickly will not be a professional nanny who can produce exceptional references. Once you get into the high-net-worth world of nannying, you can either continue on a career path to become a more professional, more skilled, more in-demand nanny, or you can become a nanny influencer — I have yet to see anyone successfully do both. 

High-net-worth families do not want to hire influencers, they want to hire professional nannies who will make their kids their top priority (as they are getting paid to do.) 

This fact, by itself, does not bode well for this show.

Ibiza? Who is handling the legal work requirements for all of this? 

A bunch of white US-based nanny influencers are all going to Ibiza “to start an agency” where they also work as babysitters? Does Hulu, Freeform, Disney know what a nanny agency is or does? Did they ask anyone? Did they Google it? While agentic AI is still transforming, I feel like even in its earliest, most affirming evolutions, it would have been able to tell someone this was a very foolhardy idea for a show fraught with legal complications, potential misinformation, and wildly unrealistic expectations for, say, anyone watching the show who was thinking about ever being a nanny or hiring a nanny.

The State of Our Industry Right Now

Every time some fluffy piece of trite comes out about the nanny industry, it’s widely shared, commented on, dissected to pieces, and then cast aside. Nannies deserve more than salacious bits of gossip on whether or not someone has bedded an employer, or how much a Kardashian nanny makes. Every year or so, these “nanny profiles” come out treating our industry like it’s ridiculous that someone who is dedicating every hour of their free time and leaving behind family, friends, home, and routine to join someone else’s family on their adventures as an employee could possibly earn a living wage (or a six-figure wage — and let’s be real, in many large cities in the country, those are now one and the same.) 

Shows like this have the power to derail an industry that is already unregulated and vulnerable, and divide people who already struggle to form and thrive in community. For any cast members who genuinely love working as nannies, they will likely struggle to find a family willing to trust or hire them after this show airs - as we know, reality TV has a way of not exactly painting people in the best light. 

Nannies already have tough skin out of necessity - but imagine every diaper change being filmed for millions of people to watch and criticize. At the end of the day, everyone on this show, or any show, or on the receiving end of any set of online comments, is still a human - and not only is the cast of this show set up to portray the very real, demanding and professional work nannies do every day in an unrealistic light, but they are also setting themselves up for a universe of scrutiny. 

Hell hath no fury like scorned nannies - and I hope the cast of this show are set up for what is likely heading their way, or at least knew the name of the show prior to agreeing to film.

What We’re Actually Hoping For

I hope production on this new reality show treats the nannies who signed on fairly, and that they have some semblance of responsibility to the industry they’re representing and how their depiction impacts the already-harmful and incorrect views so many already have about the domestic staffing industry in the US — brought about at the end of slavery, eliminated from so many workers’ rights, and still fighting for the same basic sense of professionalism (even down to legal pay) that all other employees in the US receive. Domestic work is real work.

I know we are all collectively holding our breaths that these “hot young babysitters” don’t make a mockery of the field they’ve built an audience around on TikTok — and at the end of the day, none of us have a say in how this show modeling our industry shows up in the public eye, and how many millions of people will make judgments based on whatever these poor unfortunate souls do on camera.

Are we going to watch this show? 

Of course. 

Is it going to be an accurate depiction of the very real, raw, vulnerable, and gut-wrenching situations nannies in the US (or any country) actually face on the day-to-day? 

It likely is not. 

Will it be the Vanderpump Rules of the nanny industry? 

We can only dream. 

Is the cast indicative and representative of the overall demographics of the domestic staffing industry? 

It sure doesn’t appear to be by any stretch of the imagination. 

Is it going to be disrespectful of the history of our industry and the real work that nannies do every day and the struggles that both families and nannies go through to establish these highly private, trusting, intimate relationships? 

Probably — we’ll reserve judgment. 

Will it make a mockery of our entire industry and push things even further backwards, erasing all of the small ways so many of us have been trying to move things forward? 

Maybe. 

Will the visibility it brings to the industry outweigh the damage it does in terms of overblown tropes, oversexualized “hot babysitters”, and overall complete disrespect? 

Probably not. 

But here we are — all waiting to watch and find out with the rest of the world.

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Have thoughts about where our industry is headed? We’d love to hear from you at marketing@adventurenannies.com.

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