Stephanie Kiser > Quotes

“My father's reasons for voting Republican, backward though they may have been, made sense to him. He had worked harder than anyone I had ever known to get where he did. The truth was my dad was not racist or dumb or evil. He was scared. He was scared of the government taking more of what little he had. Like me, he just was not fully clear on how it all worked.”
― stephanie kiser, Wanted: Toddler's Personal Assistant

“I read that only 3 percent of women during COVID find their husbands to be doing as much homeschooling as they are. That number seems high to me.”
― Stephanie Kiser, Wanted: Toddler's Personal Assistant: How Nannying for the 1% Taught Me about the Myths of Equality, Motherhood, and Upward Mobility in America

“I had been under the impression that in America college was for anyone, but student debt was nothing more than tax on the poor. I had no problem with the idea that I needed to pay back what I'd borrowed, but I'd been paying a thousand a month on my loan for years now and most of that went to interest. I'd hardly paid down any of the amount I'd borrowed because the bank's 4.5 percent interest rate wouldn't allow any actual progress - a modern way of blocking upward mobility.”
― Stephanie Kiser, Wanted: Toddler's Personal Assistant

“Wanting help was one thing, but finding quality help, affording it, and pushing yourself through it was another. It seemed the mental health system was flawed, no matter what sort of patient was seeking treatment.”
― Stephanie Kiser, Wanted: Toddler's Personal Assistant

“He was found late one evening with a still-burning cigarette in the ashtray and a Bud Light on the nightstand. At least he died surrounded by his loved ones.”
― Stephanie Kiser, Wanted: Toddler's Personal Assistant

“Of course," I say before immediately googling what the fuck a charcuterie board is.”
― Stephanie Kiser, Wanted: Toddler's Personal Assistant

“He was found late one evening with a stil-burning cigarette in the ashtray and a Budlight on the nightstand. At least he died surrounded by his loved ones.”
― Stephanie Kiser, Wanted: Toddler's Personal Assistant

“Women in America were fucked. Poor, minority, and uneducated women in America were doubly fucked.”
― Stephanie Kiser, Wanted: Toddler's Personal Assistant

“I wasn’t interested in Queens. Besides Elliot Stabler (who must be a wizard, as he only becomes more attractive with age!), I had no idea what kind of people lived there, and I wasn’t keen to find out.”
― Stephanie Kiser, Wanted: Toddler's Personal Assistant: How Nannying for the 1% Taught Me about the Myths of Equality, Motherhood, and Upward Mobility in America

“rides at Disney World.”
― Stephanie Kiser, Wanted: Toddler's Personal Assistant: How Nannying for the 1% Taught Me about the Myths of Equality, Motherhood, and Upward Mobility in America

“The year was 1996, and every grown-up I knew wore their hair in a mullet and drank excessive amounts of Coca-Cola.”
― Stephanie Kiser, Wanted: Toddler's Personal Assistant

“I feel a flash of shame at how easily I focused on my mother's faults, never recognizing her strengths.”
― Stephanie Kiser, Wanted: Toddler's Personal Assistant

“things”
― Stephanie Kiser, Wanted: Toddler's Personal Assistant: How Nannying for the 1% Taught Me about the Myths of Equality, Motherhood, and Upward Mobility in America

“Most lived in Woonsocket, the same town as the distribution center, where a third of the population is on food stamps and the median income for a household in 2009 was roughly $38,000. They were old, tired, and sad. I doubted their lives would ever get easier.”
― Stephanie Kiser, Wanted: Toddler's Personal Assistant

“I realize her type of motherhood requires an act of selflessness that I fear I don’t possess. It makes me think that perhaps the responsibility of having a child isn’t for everyone.”
― Stephanie Kiser, Wanted: Toddler's Personal Assistant

“They make us feel dumb," my father had said back in October. "Your people, they act like we're just so stupid. There will always be bad people on both sides, but most of us are just trying to vot what's right for us. But they make us feel like we're too beneath them to even deserve a vote.”
― Stephanie Kiser, Wanted: Toddler's Personal Assistant

“Kelsey was five foot ten, frightfully thin, and had pesticides where her soul should have been.”
― Stephanie Kiser, Wanted: Toddler's Personal Assistant

“There are certain things in America that can suggest a person is either very wealthy or incredibly poor. Where I come from, a yard with dozens of cars in it screams poverty. The cars are mostly junk, being saved in the hope that one day they'll have a healthy part that can be salvaged or an engine to repurpose. But a person in East Hampton with a driveway full of automobiles has surely done well for themselves.”
― Stephanie Kiser, Wanted: Toddler's Personal Assistant

“Among my peers, I now exist in a perpetual state of mortification.”
― Stephanie Kiser, Wanted: Toddler's Personal Assistant

“This is the first step to making peace with my parents. It is a critical moment. I both realize and accept here in this conversation that I can't change who they are or where I came from. I can't be angry with them for not having more than they did. They are different from me, and we don't share the same values or beliefs, but those things are okay as long as we respect and attempt to understand one another.”
― Stephanie Kiser, Wanted: Toddler's Personal Assistant

“I never wanted to leave Gram's. My mother couldn't understand my resistance, but the answer was simple. It wasn't about the snacks or the TV time. It was that being with Gram was the only time when I always knew what to expect.”
― Stephanie Kiser, Wanted: Toddler's Personal Assistant

“I’m surrounded by families with more money than they could ever need, and they’re being served by people who are likely just as capable as them but who simply weren’t fortunate enough to inherit millions at birth.”
― Stephanie Kiser, Wanted: Toddler's Personal Assistant

“But this feeling is fleeting. Because for every blissful moment with a child comes ten more of hell.”
― Stephanie Kiser, Wanted: Toddler's Personal Assistant

“I'm so sorry," she apologized, explaining that her mother had been in a fender bender on the drive over. "She has a car accident every few months. She's a really crazy driver," Lila laughed sheepishly. It turned out this was the understatement of the year since Joie totaled more cars in a decade than most did in a lifetime.”
― Stephanie Kiser, Wanted: Toddler's Personal Assistant

“Women of all shapes, sizes, and colors had it harder when it came to domestic life than men. COVID-19 did not start this. It brought it to light.”
― Stephanie Kiser, Wanted: Toddler's Personal Assistant: How Nannying for the 1% Taught Me about the Myths of Equality, Motherhood, and Upward Mobility in America

“But somehow I only ever pay my bills and don't save anything. The more money I'm exposed to, the more I want, and the more I make, the more I spend. I'm on a financial Ferris wheel and the only thing I know for sure is that I am no longer the ten-year-old once easily pleased with a single pair of new Skechers.”
― Stephanie Kiser, Wanted: Toddler's Personal Assistant

“Maybe we would never have the bond I wished for, but her heart was there and her intentions were good. Her life hadn't always been easy, and for the first time, I thought maybe she'd been doing the best she could all along. I felt sorry and ashamed that it had taken me this long to see that, but growing up is hard, and accepting people for who they are is even harder.”
― Stephanie Kiser, Wanted: Toddler's Personal Assistant

“Not so different from a Chucky doll, I had become both interesting AND frightening to people.”
― Stephanie Kiser, Wanted: Toddler's Personal Assistant

“...raised voices were as much a part of my family's routine as brushing our teeth (which we did only in the mornings because my mother felt nighttime brushing was a conspiracy created by Crest to drum up more business).”
― Stephanie Kiser, Wanted: Toddler's Personal Assistant

“When I was growing up, my parents had huge blowups, and, if these meltdowns occurred in the car, inevitably someone got so mad they'd exit the vehicle and make a big show of walking home. The other would drive slowly alongside, demanding they get back in, while my sisters and I howled in laughter from the back seat.”
― Stephanie Kiser, Wanted: Toddler's Personal Assistant