Need a Mom? Now You Can Rent One for $40 an Hour

Nina Keneally offers her motherly services to Bushwick millennials
By Elizabeth Armstrong Moore,  Newser Staff
Posted Nov 12, 2015 7:28 AM CST
Need a Mom? Now You Can Rent One for $40 an Hour
A mother for 30 years, Nina Keneally says she'll do motherly things without questioning lifestyle choices or being judgmental.   (Nina Keneally)

Nina Keneally has been there, done that. The 63-year-old mother of two who recently relocated from suburban Connecticut to Brooklyn has been everything from a drug and rehab counselor at a methadone clinic to a Tony-winning theater producer. All while making dinner, going to soccer games, serving on the PTA, planning birthday parties, and the myriad of other things mothers somehow find time to do. So, after meeting many millennials in the Bushwick art and yoga scene who sought her advice on and help with everything from landlords to resumés, she launched Need a Mom two weeks ago and already has six clients, reports the Daily Beast. Keneally charges $40 an hour to do anything from cook a meal to sew buttons, reports a sponsored piece in the Bushwick Daily that notes she's a mom, not a maid—so she won't clean your apartment.

So why not just use one's own mother's (presumably free) services? Keneally says what she is offering is for those in need of a mom, just not their mom—a mom, she writes on her site, who will "make that pecan pie that you really really love" but won't "question your lifestyle choice" or "compare you to your sister Maggie or your cousin Jake." Keneally adds that she offers "an understanding of what the world is like for younger people living here that parents in Dubuque, Iowa, might not have." The "younger people" part is key: Keneally's services really are for millennials, and she says she's declined requests from people in their 40s and up. Even with just her handful of clients, she's already getting calls from talent and production agencies who want to turn it into reality TV. Just like a sage mother would advise, however, she says she isn't rushing into anything. (This guy waits in line for a living.)

Get the news faster.
Tap to install our app.
X
Install the Newser News app
in two easy steps:
1. Tap in your navigation bar.
2. Tap to Add to Home Screen.

X