Mary Poppins Makes Way for the Manny

June 20, 2007 — -- Are you a Park Avenue power mom? If so, there are more than a few good men out there. They're athletic, smart, good-looking and they love children, but don't get the wrong idea. These guys aren't looking for dates — they want to help raise your kids.

Britney Spears hired a 29-year-old Naval Academy grad to watch her kids.

Macho action star Vin Diesel displayed his brand of child care in the film "The Pacifier."

And remember Mr. French? The guy on the 1960s TV show "Family Affair" who looked after Buffy and Jody when Uncle Bill went to the office? He was, perhaps, the original Park Avenue "manny," or male nanny. He may have been the first, but he certainly wasn't the last.

Today's mannies are young, active, educated and in very high demand among New York's very rich.

Holly Peterson, the author of a new novel called "The Manny," said, "I've always hired mannies. I love mannies. Mannies are really, really, fun child-care givers because they're messier, they're sillier, they play harder, they rough and tumble your kids all over the park. I think it's great for my kids to have a male role model in the house."

Peterson is an editor at Newsweek and a former producer at ABC News. She's also a mother of three and a Park Avenue native who has long been fascinated by how the uberwealthy raise their children.

"When they drop off their kids, the bamboo on their earrings matches the trim on their heels. … New York is an immensely energetic, competitive town, so when it comes to kids, that plays into it as well," she said. "How many languages? How many sports? What kind of grades? What kind of clothes? … It's really an endless supply of absurd over-the-top behavior."

Click here to read an excerpt of "The Manny."

Historically, this is a neighborhood where a family with three children has three nannies. Instead, Peterson hired 20-year-old John "Sunshine" Margaritis to be her manny. She said it was actually her husband's idea.

"My son was a kid who had a fair amount of tantrums. He's a middle kid between two bossy sisters. And he was around, my husband called it, an 'estrogen explosion' all day long," she said. "There was no guy in the house and it was driving my husband crazy, because it was just too many Barbie dolls, too many princess costumes, too many plastic slippers, and all these things, and he really wanted a guy in the house. So it was actually my husband that started pushing it."