BB Smalls wasn’t looking for a free ride when she signed on as a nanny to Hollywood honchos, globally-renowned rock stars and bigwig billionaires.
But free first-class flights to Bora Bora, $100,000 rooms at the St. Regis Resort and bougie boating excursions along the Amalfi Coast are exactly what she got — not to mention routine shopping sprees at Gucci, Chanel and Louis Vuitton — while on the job.
“I’ve been everywhere: Maui, Tahiti, London, Italy, Scotland, you name it,” Smalls, 44, from Los Angeles, tells The Post.
Nondisclosure agreements bar her from spilling the secrets and specifics of her eccentric ex-bosses. But Smalls, now a married stay-at-home mom living in Texas, says, “Nannying for the right people means getting paid to travel.”
She’s in the 40% of childcare providers who are “superyacht nannies,” and regularly globetrot, by sky, land or sea, to luxe locations with their employers, per data via the International Nanny Association.
It’s a post that grants kiddo pros the opportunity to see the sights, as well as how the top 1% travels, for free.
The super lucky even get to nanny on superyachts, vacation vessels spanning over 80 feet in length, which are roughly twice the length of an average yacht. The behemoths come fully staffed with a captain and crew.
Chartering the megacruisers can cost between $100,000 and more than $1 million per week, depending on size, time of year and onboard amenities, such as helipads, movie theatres, Jacuzzis and gyms.
But most A-list showboats like Mark Zuckerberg, who paid a reported $300 million for his 387-foot superyacht, and Jeff Bezos, with his 417-foot, $500 million ship, rarely sweat over dollars and cents.
Ella Peters, a superyacht nanny of nearly 10 years, said that during peak yachting season, June through August, she’s often booked for back-to-back trips with a revolving door of well-to-do employers from NYC, Europe and the Middle East.
“I do love the job,” the 28-year-old owner of UK’s SuperyachtNanny.co, tells The Post. “But it is exhausting.”
She charges around $500 per day for her on-ship sitter services. However, her fees, not including the standard “four-figure tip” she typically receives, can increase according to the number of children aboard and their ages.
Like Smalls, Peters works for internationally known hotshots whose names must remain hush-hush due to NDAs. Her upper-crust clients routinely rent nearly 300-foot-long tubs, costing over $1 million per week, for family cruises through the Mediterranean.
The preferred path they sail is famously known as “The Milk Run.” On it, tycoons tour the south of France, Corsica and Sardinia, Italy — home to Costa Smeralda, nicknamed “billionaires’ playground,” owing to its turquoise waters, fine-sand shores and chichi beach clubs.
“It has everything my ultrahigh net worth families want,” said Peters.
“My favorite ‘pinch me’ moment was driving myself and my 11-year-old charge on a jet ski through the famous Faraglioni rocks in Capri, Italy,” the Londoner said.
Still, Smalls, who recently left VIP nannying for content creation, says working for the uberwealthy wasn’t always smooth sailing.
“One Bel Air family wanted me to nanny for them on a yacht for an entire month, but I wasn’t allowed to be seen,” she recalled of the odd demand. “If either parent walked into a room that I was in, I’d have to hide and hold in place until they left the room.”
“During my downtime on the yacht, I’d have to stay out of sight and be banished to my room.”
But Peters has only had stellar experiences — and very little downtime — while minding mini moguls on the waves.
“I get up before the children and try to drink some coffee in peace,” Peters says. “When you’re onboard, you have to put in effort to get a few moments to yourself. After that, everything is go, go, go.”
But her skills are worth every penny.
Peters comes fully equipped with pediatric first-aid training, police background clearance, nanny insurance, water safety training and a personal watercraft license — documents that permit her to operate jet skis and paddle boats.
And while their moneyed mommies and daddies play, she entertains the tots all day.
“After my coffee, I greet the kids in the morning as they wake up, then feed them a small breakfast before we do arts and crafts,” Peters began.
Depending on the size of the superyacht, she either gets her own room, bunks with the babies or shares living quarters with a crew member.
“When the parents wake up, the kids have a proper family breakfast with them, then we do a few morning watersports before they do a family-style buffet lunch,” continued the millennial. “In the afternoon, when the sun is really hot, we do more arts and crafts before doing more water activities or stopping off at a local village for ice cream and exploring.”
“At night, I feed the kids dinner while the parents prepare for their evening plans,” she said of the superpacked schedule. “Then it’s time for bed.”
Sarah Leonard, 25, a superyacht nanny from Maryland, however, tells The Post her days on the water are more like walks in the park.
“I spend about four hours a day working with the kids, the rest of the time I’m able to chill on the yacht or maybe explore,” said the Gen Z.
She’s spent the past two summers as a superyacht nanny for a South African influencer family with a bent towards boating around Turkey, Greece and Italy.
“I was working as a scuba diver in Puerto Rico back in 2023, and I saw a Facebook listing for a yacht nannying position and applied,” said Leonard, a certified rescue diver and CPR expert and former lifeguard.
For her, the childcare gig was an unpaid position that came with the perks of enjoying an all-inclusive, saltwater excursion.
And the family, comprising a mom, dad and two boys under age 8, treated Leonard like family, giving her a private bedroom and bathroom, including her in family meals and “gifting” her with a special token of their appreciation at the end of the two-month journey.
But Leonard, who’ll be touring Italy and France with new brood this summer, says traveling with little ones is the true gift that keeps on giving.
“I get to experience the world through the eyes of these little kids,” gushed the superyacht nanny. “It’s magical.”