A few years back, Upper East Sider Rebecca Land Soodak hit that sweet spot between demanding and deranged that tickles us so about New York City parents when she wrote a too-real Craigslist ad seeking a nanny. “I do not want to hide my occasional Bergdorf shopping bag,” she declared. “If you are fundamentally unhappy with your life, you will be more unhappy if you take this job.” She called her kids a “pain in the ass” and in a bright burst of self-awareness added, “Okay, if you’re still reading this ad it means I am a halfway decent writer and maybe I really will get that book deal I’m yearning for.” She ended up finding a nanny, and this week, her book is out.
The Observer spent some time recently with Land Soodak, who has it all figured out:
After the Craigslist post went viral, agents were clamoring for a mommy’s take on The Nanny Diaries. In September 2008, Ms. Land Soodak went to Borders and bought a couple of books on fiction writing. She wrote the novel in the lobby of her gym, in the waiting room outside the kids’ violin lessons, and in the fourth-floor bathroom at Bloomingdale’s, where there are couches and an outlet and she didn’t have to buy anything.
“It got expensive having coffee all the time,” she said.
She credits her adult ADD diagnosis with opening her artistic mind, but has been writing more than painting lately, and with a mission, too: “It’s socially acceptable to deride wealthy white women, particularly wealthy white mothers,” she said. “I think that’s wrong.” Keep fighting the good fight.
