First it was bottled water…then it was food allergies… and now its parenting. I mean really, does anyone want to spend that much one-on-one time with their children? It’s abnormal.  After watching the series finale of Downtown Abbey last week I watched a PBS Special on the customs and daily life of British Aristocrats.  For all of their flaws the Brit’s seem to get one thing right…Nannies.  It turns out that rich people in England only spend 1 hour a day with their children – 4:00 – 5:00pm right before afternoon tea.  Other than that, they stay with their nannies.  Brilliant!  Aristocrats don’t have to worry about pesky things like diapers and crying.  The nannies handle it.  Want to go on vacation for a month?  No problem.  Want to eat dinner in peace?  No problem.  Let the nannies handle the children.  For the one hour per day that the children do interact with their parents they are dressed in their “Sunday best”, clean and on their best behavior.  If they act up, the nannies scoop them up and send them right to bed without dinner.  I love this system.  With 24 hours in a day this means that you only have to “raise” your children 4.17% of the time.  Now compare that to the American way of parenting.  You send your kids to school for 6 measly hours meaning that you have to “parent” 75% of the time.  Unacceptable!   Why not extend the school day to 8 hours? Or 10 (include all 3 meals, homework and baths). I’m okay with strangers giving my kids baths. Just throw them all in a giant kiddie pool and break out the hose. It could take the place of gym class.  There’s a funny line from a new commercial where a mother is told that her daycare will be closed due to snow.  She says to the camera, “What do you expect me to do with them?  Bring them to my house?  Where I live?”  I’m pretty sure my parent’s favorite day of the year was when that little postcard from the school district would arrive in the mail telling them our bus stop location and pick up time.  They were one step closer to summer being over and their sanity coming back.  I say the smartest American parents are the ones that send their kids to boarding school.  They leave in August (earlier if they play sports), maybe come back at Thanksgiving, possibly Christmas.  You throw in one annoying (I mean wonderful) “parent’s weekend” in the fall and all is well until summer when you send them off to camp.  I’ve met some boarding school parents.  They look REALLY HAPPY.  I mean REALLY REALLY HAPPY.  Like, Downtown Abbey happy.  All of our kids are going to be in therapy when they get older anyway; you might as well enjoy this time for yourself and let trained professionals raise them.  If they turn out well you can pat yourself on the back for hiring a good nanny.  If they turn out bad you can just blame the nanny.  Win-win.