Ready for a night out? Hire a disco nanny

GREECE - Three months before Ms Olga Lopatina and Mr Emiliano Beltrami made their annual August pilgrimage to Mykonos, Greece, they started making reservations.

They made sure to snag tables at Scorpios, a bohemian beach club set on the Aegean Sea, and Lio, the island's star-studded, cabaret-style restaurant.

"We make reservations for six people even before we know which of our friends can come," said Mr Beltrami, 45, who lives in Milan with his family and is a real estate entrepreneur. "It's what you have to do to get a table."

The most important booking they made (and one of the hardest to get) was for nannies who specialise in late nights to care for their children aged two and four.

In party hot spots around Europe including Mykonos, where beautiful people guzzle magnums of rose at oceanside clubs, and Ibiza, Spain, where DJ sets last until sunrise, agencies have popped up that provide childcare at all hours of the day and night.

Many of these babysitters - some clients call them disco nannies - have graduate degrees in education, are fluent in multiple languages and offer art classes or swim lessons.

They arrive at the tourists' villas or hotels while the parents are getting ready to go out. They will spend the night and sometimes stay until the parents' hangovers subside the next day. (Parents are expected to furnish a legitimate place for nannies to sleep, not just a chair in the corner of a hotel room.)

For parents who can afford them, these services provide a rare opportunity to let loose.

Assured that their children are in good hands, many even get to experience a glimmer of their former lives, before parental responsibilities took hold.

For their children, it is an opportunity to interact with locals and get to do activities their parents may not be able to provide.

Before having children, Ms Lopatina, 38, a former model, and her husband used to drink and dance under the stars, by the sea, all night long.

"We used to live it up in Mykonos, the way everybody wants to," Mr Beltrami said. "We partied as much as possible, as much as our bodies allowed us to do."

Two kids later, with the help of the nannies, they still manage to go out alone at least half their nights in Mykonos. "Some nights, we will meet friends or try the new trendy restaurants or clubs," he said. "When we are out alone, we try to feel a little younger."

These nanny agencies have enjoyed a boom in business as travel restrictions lift and parents who were home with their children nonstop during the early pandemic are eager for a summer break.

"Business is up 15 per cent," said Ms Fani Kotoula, who owns the Beltramis' preferred agency, Mykonos Best Nannies. "This summer is extremely busy, and many want overnight nannies so they can go to dinner and clubbing."

She said demand was so high that some people book up to a year in advance. "I had one client who just booked a nanny for the baby that is still in her belly," she said.

Ms Paula Felico Mari of Kids & Co, a nanny agency in Ibiza, estimated that business was up 20 to 30 per cent from last year.

"Many of our nannies stay with children from 10pm to 6am or they will stay until 2pm so the parents can sleep and have some rest," she said.

She said most of her clients are from Europe, but she gets requests from Americans, Australians and other nationalities as well.

New hotels are also joining the trend, offering 24-hour babysitting services.

Six Senses Ibiza, which opened in July last year, has a dedicated play area where nannies can take children to while their parents sleep in.

Kalesma Mykonos, where every room has a private pool, also opened last year and tells clients it can secure sitters for them any hour, day or night.

Nanny services cost around €20 (S$28) to €30 an hour.

Ms Alba Selles, 26, who is originally from Elche, a city in south-east Spain, but who lives in Ibiza during the summer to work as a nanny, said most parents were respectful and grateful.

"The parents are always so appreciative," she said. "We are helping them have a little break and enjoy themselves."

She regularly stays with her charges overnight and then until 4pm the next day.

"I'll wake up with the kids, have breakfast, play games and sometimes go swimming with them," she said. "I stay with them until the parents are feeling better and ready to be with the kids."

She also meets parents at restaurants while they enjoy a morning-after recovery lunch. She will watch the children at a separate table as their parents nurse bloody marys and eat breakfast sandwiches.

Some restaurants on the island including El Chiringuito, a beachfront restaurant with live DJs, have dedicated areas for children who are supervised. There are beach toys, playground equipment and other children to keep the little ones entertained for hours.

Some parents say the nanny services they get on vacation are better than what they can find at home.

"We don't have this set-up in England, so we hardly go out at home," said Ms Lauren Jones, 37, who lives in London and works for a construction company owned by her husband, Mr Nick Jones, 38.

"All of our date nights are in Ibiza."

NYTIMES