History Main / MarryTheNanny

* ''Series/{{Castle}}'':

* ''Series/MelissaAndJoey'': Mel (who is caring for her sister's children) and Joe (the nanny hired to care for said children) eventually fall in love.

* The story of Joseph Hall is a very, ''very'' unpleasant example of this trope. Joseph Hall was a fetal alcohol baby whose mother was so out of control that when he parents got divorced, his ''openly Nazi father'' was given full custody even despite the known family court bias against fathers. His father, Jeff Hall, was abusive, groomed him into Nazism, instilled violence into him which got him expelled from every school he was at, and refused to seek mental health treatment for his son despite being severely behind mentally. Jeff Hall then marries Joseph's nanny who gives him some sense of stability he desires, but them finds out she plans on leaving after Jeff Hall cheats on her and refuses to find employment. Out of fear of losing her, he shoots his own father in his sleep unaware he just killed him. After being sent to an adult jail, he claims his stepmom coaxed him into it, but they can't try her again due to double jeopardy (she had been charged for making a firearm accessible to him but was cleared as an accessory before the story came out).

One possible romantic resolution for a single parent is to marry the nanny. Or the governess. Or the KindlyHousekeeper, if she's younger. Or in general, anyone privately hired to care for the kids or the house. Because those duties have historically been given to women, this trope skews more towards female employee/male employer. However, regardless of gender, writers abhor single parents and marrying them to people who already act as {{Parental Substitute}}s to their children is a neat way of fixing this.

Compare to TeacherParentRomance. Generally falls under the first type ("child approves of the relationship") of ParentWithNewParamour. It's also an inversion of SingleParentsAreUndesirable. Since this is an employee/employer relationship, subtrope of UnequalPairing. See also MagicalNanny and BabysitterFriendship.

* In the British dramedy ''Jack & Sarah'', the eponymous Jack is a successful lawyer who suddenly becomes a widow thanks to DeathByChildbirth. Enters the picture a bubbly, hip American expat who becomes the nanny. After a rocky start (due to their age gap, socioeconomic status, and cultural differences), sparks fly.

* The ''Yulianna'' series by Yulia Voznesenskaya concludes with Dmitry Mishin deciding to marry Alexandra, his daughters' governess (appointed, ironically, by his previous GoldDigger fiancee). The girls are enthusiastic about it and actively ship them, though they consider Alexandra to be a CoolBigSis rather than a ParentalSubstitute since she is much younger than their father and their late mother.

* The short-lived '80s RomCom ''I Married Dora'' hinged around this trope. The widowed father of two children marries his immigrant housekeeper so she can stay in the country and continue caring for his children, who love her, and the series was intended to show the marriage actually turning into a real love match. However, it was canceled after one season.

* In the ''Franchise/HarryPotter'' fanfiction ''[[https://www.fanfiction.net/s/12910629/1/Daddy-s-Boy Daddy's Boy]]'', the recently widowed James Potter hires a nanny named Eloise (Liz). They fall in love but James has trouble letting go of the memory of his deceased wife. After a bit of matchmaking, he confesses his love for her.

* ''Film/NannyMcPhee'': Mr. Brown ends marrying [[Evangeline, the scullery maid]], who acts as a nanny to the children, helping settle fights and take care of them before Nanny McPhee arrived.

* In ''Film/NannyMcPhee'' it's the scullery maid that Mr. Brown marries. Evangeline did settle fights between the children and took the time to listen to them before the nanny got there.

* In the ''WesternAnimation/MiraculousLadybug'' AUFic ''[[https://archiveofourown.org/works/14878527 Second Chances]]'' by [[https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheNovelArtist/pseuds/TheNovelArtist TheNovelArtist]], Adrien, as a single father, has trouble finding a nanny for his daughter until Alya recommends him Marinette. Since she is recently widowed herself, it takes them twenty chapters to have a proper date.

* ''Series/WhosTheBoss''. Angela hires Tony as a housekeeper. She becomes a mother figure for Tony's daughter Samantha and Tony becomes a father figure for Angela's son Jonathan. They begin a long WillTheyOrWontThey relationship, with marriage being considered.

* ''Theatre/TheSoundOfMusic'' has the lively postulant Maria, who comes to the home of Captain Von Trapp to be governess to his seven children. She was kind to them and brought music back into the household. This caused him to begin to fall in love with Maria and they soon married.

* John of Gaunt, son of Edward III and uncle to Richard II, was a crucial and powerful figure in the politics that led to the UsefulNotes/WarsOfTheRoses. He fell in love with Katherine Swynford, who was the nanny to his children by his first wife, Blanche of Lancaster. He had at least four children by Katherine, and he eventually married her. His children by Swynford were given the surname Beaufort and were legitimized on the condition they would not be eligible to inherit the throne. Ironically, every British monarch since Edward IV has been a descendent of Swynford.

* John of Gaunt, son of Edward III and uncle to Richard II, was a crucial and powerful figure in the politics that led to the UsefulNotes/WarsOfTheRoses. He fell in love with Katherine Swynford, who was the nanny to his children by his first wife, Blanche of Lancaster. He had at least four children by Katherine, and he eventually married her. His children by Swynford were given the surname Beaufort and were legitimized on the condition they would not be eligible to inherit the throne. Ironically, every British monarch since Henry VII has been a descendent of Swynford.