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Never Mind the Nannies, Drivers are the New Dads

Manhattan's wealthiest families rely on drivers—often ex-cops and ex-Mossad—to chaperone, track and discipline their teenagers. Inside the K12 chauffeur economy.

(Editor’s note: This article was originally published on May 28, 2013.) Living on the Upper East Side, one gets accustomed to seeing ridiculous things, from $300 plates of truffle pasta to couture dog collars. But this one was a first. The other evening, I was walking off the leaden canapés after another deadly fund-raiser in someone’s “aerie.” As I was passing a venerable Park Avenue residential building, a black SUV came to a halt.

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A Dwayne Johnson-proportioned driver got out, lifted a supine teenager from the backseat like a bag of golf clubs and lugged him to the door. “I’ve taken away your cellphone,” he said. “You’ll get it back when your parents return.” He then deposited the drunken youth in the lobby. “Sleep next to a garbage can,” he cautioned before leaving his charge in the custody of the doormen.

The New York Post recently wrote about parents who were passing off their classroom volunteer duties onto nannies, much to the dismay of their private schools, or rather, of the other moms, who didn’t fancy selling snickerdoodles alongside hired help at bake sales. The story ricocheted around the Upper East Side, a neighborhood whose privileged parents stand accused of outsourcing every child-rearing task, from cooking to etiquette training.

As someone who lives and raises kids there, I’m here to tell you that these charges are all pretty much true. (It’s actually worse.) But now drivers are stepping in as parents as........

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