Domestic Workers Unite!

An article from the Domestic Workers Unite newsletter:

Founder Dana Kandic met with Ljiljana Vlaisavljevic to talk about her job as a nanny and house keeper for an Upper East Side family. Read the article below to learn about the amazing life she has with the Smith family.

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It’s 3:00pm on a sunny Tuesday and the sidewalks of New York City slowly start to fill up with elementary school students and their Dora the Explorer backpacks. Walking along the side of them are their parents. But in some cases, nannies are the ones picking up these students. Take the corner of 85^th street and Lexington Avenue for example. It’s where the elementary school of Ramaz is located: a private Jewish school located on the Upper East Side.

Ljiljana Vlaisavljevic, a Croatian native, moved to Queens with her husband and two daughters in the early 90’s. She has been a nanny and a housekeeper for the Smith family in New York City since 1996. She loves her job. Prior to moving to the states, Vlaisavljevic received her culinary license and now she shows off her talents and shares Croatian specialty foods to the Smith boys: two first grade twins, and two teenagers. I walk up to introduce myself in the lobby of Ramaz and one of the Smith twins already knows that I, too am Croatian and greets me with a “dobar dan,” (good afternoon in Croatian) instead of “hello” or “good afternoon.” I was amazed. My jaw dropped, and I knew I was in for a good story from Vlaisavljevic

We walk to central park for playtime and Vlaisavljevic rushes the kids by saying “ajde,” (lets go). They understand and start walking quicker.

“But Lilly I can’t walk that fast!,” one twin wines.

“My name is LJiLJana!” shouts Vlaisavljevic. “If I can learn your language (English) you can learn my LJ!” she laughs it off – as she refers to the one of the more complicated pronunciations of a letter of the Croatian alphabet, lj, and pronounced lya.

Passover is next week and for the second year in a row the family is staying home. The Smith’s just moved from 93^rd street and 5^th ave and to 3^rd ave and 82nd street. But previous Passover vacations have been spent numerous times in Puerto Rico, Mexico, Florida and Arizona. Vlaisavljevic tags along on these vacation trips not as a nanny – but like a family friend – and get this: she still gets paid. She brings her two daughters on all vacations. Vlaisavljevic has paid no expenses. The Smith family takes care of everything.

“I haven’t spent a dime,” Vlaisavljevic says. “And we hang all together. My kids know their kids. We’re not family but that tight like we are family.”

And that is exactly it. Vlaisavljevic is amazingly close with the Smith family, you would think they were related – or like an extended family. The Smith children come to Vlaisavljevic’s house in Queens to celebrate Christmas and Easter, to put up the ornaments on the tree or to dye eggs. Sometimes the Smith children are at Vlaisavljevic’s house just because – whether they’re sick of their parents, or they just want to be in a different atmosphere, to them it feels like they’re going to their second mother’s house.

Vlaisavljevic brings the kids to the doctors, the pediatrician, the dentist, and even the barber shop.

“They don’t want to go with parents, they always want to go with me,” she says. “They’re afraid but with me they’re never afraid. “

And finally, something you probably have been wondering from the begining: health insurance. With a collaboration of the insurance her husband receives from working in the union to receiving insurance through the Smith family, Vlaisavljevic was able to pay for her daughters jaw surgery. She now is currently insured through her husband only.

Vlaisavljevic is living the good life. The Smith family is simple, and are easy going people that trust Vlaisavljevic with all four of their kids. Growing up with ten siblings, this is the prime job for Vlaisavljevic. She loves the Smith family.

“This is a thing where I can find myself doing good things,” says Vlaisavljevic. “So if you’re talking about more money, I don’t care about it. I care about happiness.”