Magical Nanny: Difference between revisions

Magical Nannies come in two flavors:

 

 

While Magical Nannies are often threatened with the sack, they are not easy to get rid of. When their employment ends, it will be on their own terms. Typically they will decide that [[But Now I Must Go|their work here is done]] or they will stay and marry the head of the household. (Note that they ''never'' become the [[Wicked Stepmother]].) The latter is particularly common in the [[Romance Novel]]; indeed, the heroine may become the stepmother first and still fulfill the role of Magical Nanny.

* Emily in ''[[The Secret Life of the Backyard Kids]]'' is a literal version.

 

* Subverted in ''[[The Addams Family|Addams Family Values]]''; the family finally finds a nanny who will put up with the children because she wants to marry Fester, then kill him, for his money.

** Being the Addams Family, they consider this a very respectable lifestyle and are mainly irritated with her choice of Pastels as a color palette.

* ''[[Big Momma's House]]'' series: Played straight in the first two films where Big Momma becomes a member of the family and draws everyone together.

 

* ''Nurse Matilda'': Nurse Matila herself was a sensible nanny with magic powers, which tended to be more disturbing than in the movies.

* Polgara the Sorceress in ''Polgara the Sorceress'', ''[[The Belgariad]]'', and ''[[The Malloreon]]'' is a powerful sorceress that is well recognized as such when she isn't tending to more than two thousand years of little boys as their "Aunt Pol" who cooks, cleans and manages their lives for the better. Like Mary Poppins, she isn't necessarily free spirited, but is an extremely competent and magical nanny.

* ''[[Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle]]'', whose cures for bad behaviors like selfishness or not wanting to go to bed are based on the philosophy of "give bratty kids what they want, [[Radish Cure|and make them regret it]]"). If used in real life, such cures would probably result in a lawsuit and/or emotional scarring rather than making anyone good little children. Interestingly, while some of Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle's ideas (like the [[Radish Cure]]) involve fairly reality-based (if improbably) foundations, she also has a number of magical powders, candies, pills, and liquids which can make children turn invisible, lose their voices, or literally become idiots. The only explanation as to how she got this is that her husband found them from his days of pirating. In the series ''Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle's Farm'', the kids are mostly cured by being dropped off at the titular farm and spending a few weeks learning to adapt to life there. This inevitably leads to a situation in which the child must overcome their issue.

* [[Mary Poppins]], although perhaps not so much as her film counterpart.

 

* Phoebe Figallily in ''[[Nanny and the Professor]]''.

* The female lead in ''Free Spirit'', an American [[Sitcom]] which has faded into obscurity, was a Magical Nanny.

* Random from ''[[Out of the Blue]]'' (1979).

 

* ''[[Girl Genius]]'': Von Pinn is a Type 2, at least according to the children in her care. She's also an ultraviolent battle-cyborg in a dominatrix dress.

 

* Parodied in the ''[[Animaniacs]]'' segment "The Sound of Warners". The siblings pay Slappy to get rid of her. After meeting her, Slappy returns to the kids and tells them that this one will be on the house.

* Parodied in ''[[South Park]]'' with the various reality show nannies trying to tame ''Cartman''. It ends badly for all of them until the Dog Whisperer comes and gets Cartman to shape up. Only after he fails to marry Mrs. Cartman do things become undone.

 

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[[Category:Mentors]]

[[Category:Characters As Device]]

[[Category:Always Female]]

[[Category:Romance Novel Tropes]]