Nanny Wars: It’s A Chore When The Household Staff Goes Mad

In an ideal world, household staff will all get along. But when clashes arise over who left the kitchen a mess or who is getting preferential treatment from the parents, all hell can break loose.

Lesley Kring thought she had the perfect nanny gig: A $75,000 salary, generous health benefits and vacation time, even her own pool house on the family’s Rye, N.Y., estate. She had such a close, loving relationship with the four children in her charge that she was often mistaken for their mother. Ms. Kring was excited when she learned the stay-at-home mom she worked for wanted extra manpower. She thought her job could only get easier with an extra set of hands. But Ms. Kring couldn’t have imagined the drama that came with more help.

There was the housekeeper who would clean an entire kitchen full of dishes but leave Ms. Kring’s plates back in the sink. A second nanny would eventually turn against her, too, accusing Ms. Kring of receiving preferential treatment from the parents. Infighting grew; cliques were formed and at one point, the housekeeper ran to a neighbor’s house and called 911 after Ms. Kring wrestled a mini-cassette recorder out of her hands—she had begun to tape record Ms. Kring in hopes of getting her fired.

“I was part of a fully staffed house, and it was a very difficult dynamic,” Ms. Kring, 45, says. “People got nasty and relationships deteriorated. When a staffed house does work without issues, I think it’s kind of miraculous.”

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