So I’m watching the U.S Open Tennis tournament, the match between Federer and Djokovic. Mary Carillo relates this story about how Federer, his wife, and two young children go up into the Swiss Alps for a vacation. The two kids fall sick, followed soon after by both parents. It turns out, according to Carillo, that “they made a rookie parent mistake. They didn’t take any nannies!!!”
Geez, what world is this woman living in?
I hear you. What kind of dolt forgets to bring nannies/butlers on vacation? You’d think we were back to living in caves. Horrible parents like these make me fucking sick.
Did they at least remember to pack a helicopter to get to their doctor?
Seems like if the whole family got sick at the same time, the nanny would probably just have gotten sick as well.
Don’t be silly. Nannies aren’t human.
Did anyone report them to child protective services? We can’t have people trying to parent their own children. Someone should call and report them…
It must be nice to live in a world like that.
Any chance it was a joke?
A 100% chance.
Mary Carrillo irritated the living hell out of me before. She now irritates the dead hell out of me as well.
Or that it was a typo, and they meant to say they forgot to take “nappies” (diapers)?
Trying to improvise a substitute for diapers for young children could certainly lead to sickness for the family.
…not if he took it back.
d&r
I love Mary Carillo. It was a boneheaded thing to say.
I once heard an interview with Steve Perry (formerly of Journey) and the interviewer asked him if he partook in all the partying and womanizing that typically goes on. He said no because he was the lead singer and had to protect his throat at all costs. He got to the point where he wouldn’t even shake hands with people, let alone make out with strangers, because while Neil Schon (the lead guitarist) might have been able to party all night and dial it in the next night, the lead singer didn’t have that luxury. If something happened to his voice, the concert got canceled, the fans left unhappy, and nobody got paid. So he took extra care of his voice, which meant no excessive partying.
I think that’s kind of what Carillo meant. Federer, being a pro athlete, has to take care of his body. Because they didn’t bring along a nanny or a grandma, he had to take care of the twins and Mirka all on his own when they got seriously ill and it wore him out. That resulted in him being sidelined for a few weeks.
I’d imagine he won’t travel again to a remote area without a nanny until he’s retired. I could be wrong.
If they don’t normally have a nanny, should they hire one just for travel? If they do have one, when does she get vacation, never?
(I hate having “service”, so I’ll admit to some serious bias here; oh, and we had a sort-of-nanny when my brothers were little)
Athletes at Federer’s level usually travel with an entourage – coaches, trainers, etc. Federer is well known for not routinely bringing along a coach (Paul Anacone is a notable exception), so it’s possible they don’t travel with a nanny or grandma, etc. I kind of doubt that Mirka could manage his career AND take care of twins on the road, but it’s possible. One of the things I like about Federer is that he doesn’t have a supermodel sitting in his box, when he could have had his pick.
They’re not required to, though. Of course most big names in sports in Spain are for team sports (or for sports where the big competition is in teams even if the medals are individual, such as cycling) so they don’t have their own personal anything, but even so, that was a personal vacation, not a business trip. Business trip you travel with the coach, masseur, doctor and whatever; personal trip, part of the point is to get rid of all that people for a few days.
They should follow the example of the Beckhams, who apparently usually travel with both of their mothers in law to look after the kids. They leave the kids with them some times to spend time alone.