Sometimes you don't need to go looking for drama. Sometimes, it comes straight to you, at about 30 mph in a blue Mercedes. Yup, it's time to talk about my freaky neighbor again, Mrs. Gellar.
Get this, it was 80 degrees outside and humid when I was waiting at the bus stop this morning with my kids, Ross, Ross's nanny, and a few other moms and children from the neighborhood. I had dressed my son in just a t-shirt and jeans, appropriate clothing for weather like this. Most of the other children were wearing similar clothing, but not Ross. Poor guy was wearing a t-shirt, a sweater vest, and another long sleeved t-shirt over the sweater vest, with corduroy pants. Alot of clothes for a day that was only going to get hotter, don't you think?
Before I go on, to make a long story short, I got to know Ross and his nanny really well over the summer. I found out that the poor old lady is working as a live-in nanny to avoid being a burden to her children, and Ross is actually a pretty nice kid. We, meaning me and the nanny, often have playdates in my backyard when Mrs. Gellar is at work. Secretive, yes, but it's all good, and the kids have become great friends.
Anyway, I asked the nanny why Ross was wearing so many layers, isn't he going to get overheated?
She told me that his mother demands he wear all these layers to school everyday, because she's always cold herself. (I think my new nickname for Mrs. Gellar is going to be "Ice Queen" from now on.) The nanny said that she's actually thankful that the Ice Queen allows her to dress Ross in layers, because Ross can take the layers off once he gets to school. But he has to put them all on before he gets on the bus to go home, because if his mother happens to be home and catches him without his layers, he's toast and the nanny gets an earful.
Anyway, next thing you know Ice Queen is speeding down the road towards the bus stop in her blue Mercedes. The nanny sighs and says, "Oh, no!"
Ice Queen pulls up to the curb and yells to Ross, "Ross, get over here! NOW!!!"
The nanny replies, "Madam, I put his spring jacket in his backpack because..."
"You stay out of this!" the Ice Queen shouted, as Ross started walking towards the car. Make that running towards the car.
Ice Queen opened the door, and then THREW a winter coat at him!
"Wear it!" she screamed, and then sped off around the corner.
I couldn't believe what I had just seen. All the other mothers couldn't believe it either. The nanny shook her head and said, "This is what I have to put up with everyday, she's just temperamental." I think the word 'temperamental' was a little too kind. I believe the term 'fucking nuts' would be a little more accurate.
The other moms and I asked Ross if he was okay, and he said, "Yes, my mom just wanted to give me my jacket," after which the nanny ushered him to keep the jacket on until he got on the bus, because the Ice Queen was known to take a drive around the block and come back to check if he was still wearing it. This was obviously not the first time she had done this, as I learned from the other moms, but since I'm a newbie to the neighborhood bus stop scene, it was new to me.
Lucky for Ross, the bus arrived before Ice Queen did, and he got on with my son and the other children to the safety of school. As I walked back home with the nanny, I lent her an ear while she told me about how hard it is to be a nanny at her age, but she has no choice. She wants to be independent in her old age and doesn't want to have to live with her kids, or in a nursing home. But, she gets paid well to take the abuse, so she's dealing with it.
Cut to..... the screeching sound of a car behind the corner. Ice Queen was back! The nanny scurried home to face the music while I went back into the house with the twins. I was running as if I was the one in trouble, but it was actually the poor old nanny. All for trying to keep her little charge from overheating in the humidity.
I know no mother is perfect and we've all wigged out on our kids at some point (or several times a week) but in public, at the bus stop, where the entire neighborhood is watching? All because you wanted your kid to wear a winter coat in 80 degree weather? I don't even think PMS could justify that.
13 comments:
crazy crazy craazzzy ice queen..well if you've watched the kiddie movie then you know that mrs. Geller can really seem like the real ice queen in the movie..cold..wierd..controlling..mean perhaps?? sigh* i feel bad for ross too i have never gotten yelled at in public so i don't know how he felt..frankly i dont want to know but that was a meeaaan thing to dooo!
the poor child
I know that as a day care provider once upon a time that if a child was overdressed or underdressed it was a sign of neglect but maybe....just maybe she feels guilty for not being able to be with her son all the time and was worried about being a BAD mother so she overcompensates.....who knows or maybe just maybe she really is crazy......
Poor Ross, yeah, I think Mrs. Gellar is overcompensating. Didn't you say she was a doctor.She's probably the type that has cotton wool over all the sharp edges on their furniture. poor Ross. However, i hear strains of PSYCHO echoing through. Watch out, chic mommy, Ross BATES may come after you......
She sounds awesomely nuts but I feel sorry for that kid. I'll give her the benefit of the doubt and assume she loves her kid but if she's the type that berates and flatout spews emotional abuse at her nanny it doesn't look good for the future. That level of bile has to be taken out on someone once the nanny leaves.
I think the mother does love Ross, but what I'm sensing is a power struggle going on between her and the nanny. The tension recently escalated when Ross introduced the nanny as his "mother" to his friends at school. Mrs. Gellar found out about it and flipped out, and spent the next three nights drilling into Ross's head that she is his mother, not the nanny. I don't know, I've never had a nanny so I don't know what it must be like to work and have to deal with this situation, and yeah, she is a doctor and works all the time, she's rarely home. I just think it was pretty crazy of her to make her son wear a winter coat in 80 degree weather. Poor Ross, he's the one suffering the most out of all of them.
Mrs. Gellar sounds freaking nuts!!!
Poor kid! The weather these days is sooo confusing. I just put a sweater in my kid's backpack and tell them to wear it if they get cold. Doesn't work all the time though.
OMG She wouldn't happen to be Italian -is she? Because the mothers around here are very similar (I live in southern italy and they wear down coats at the slightest chill!). I feel so bad for that child and nanny -who needs the grief?!
JetSetBaby
chic mommy-interesting that it might stem out of insecurity on Mrs. Gellar's part.
Still, it seems weird to me that she didn't consider the issue of what she chose to practice on her home life. I'm not anti-working mom AT ALL (I myself am likely to go back to work). But my sister is a doctor and I'm a lawyer and we both chose our respective specialisations to account for these type of situations (she's a shrink and I'm a govt lawyer). Neither of us will make as much money as other people in our field-but we do way better than the average american and we have regular hours (even my sister's residency gives her 9-5 horus after the first year).
These are issues that became very very obvious to us within 1 year of law/med school. They are usually touched upon in ethics classes (at least, it was for both of us...maybe that's just our schools though)
*shrug* maybe this is non-pc but I feel you develop an understanding of what is expected of you in these careers early on so she should be a bit nicer to the nanny
wow. I'm speechless.
poor kid. What an odd way for the mom to behave in public. Who knows what is going on in her head? But whatever, how embarrassing for everyone to have to see it.
yikes.
More like ice psycho bitch queen...lol
Hmm..what a weirdo. THAT is definitely not normal. I feel sorry for Ross and the Nanny...I wonder how many others are also a victim of Ms. Ice Queen's insanity *eeek!
Sounds too much like scenes from my childhood.
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