Brooklyn Woman to Local 20-Somethings: I'll Be Your Mom for an Hourly Fee

Photo courtesy of Nina Keneally

Since moving from Connecticut to just off the Halsey Street L stop in Bushwick, Brooklyn, two years ago, 63-year-old theater producer Nina Keneally has been overwhelmed by the number of local young people who’ve come to her in quarter-life-crisis mode, seeking guidance.

“People just started talking to me,” Keneally, mother of two, told Patch in a phone interview. ”Sometimes you need a parent to talk to who isn’t your parent.”

So Keneally, who often has months of downtime between theater projects, decided to make her neighborhood role as a mom-away-from-home into a legitimate business — just in time for the holidays.

She’s now charging $40 per hour for her services, or $30 for new customers.

Or, for lost Brooklyn souls in desperate need of some mom time who can’t afford her rate, she’s willing to negotiate.

“I’m not going to clean your bathroom. I’m not your maid,” Keneally said. (Like a true mom.) “But if you need a button sewn on your shirt for a job interview, I can do it. ... I can drive you to Whole Foods and help you pick out food for a nice meal.”

And if you need to unload about work problems, friend problems — even parent problems — she said, ”Why don’t we have a cup of tea in my garden and we’ll talk about it?”

However, Keneally warned, clients shouldn’t expect a coddle sesh.

”From my generation of parenting, [kids are told] they’re special all the time,” she said. ”I do think they’re all special, but it doesn’t mean everybody is going to get what they want.”

Below, more nuggets of mom wisdom from the very mom-looking website of Brooklyn’s new everymom.

“Nina is a loyal friend, good listener and dispenses advice judiciously. She is a terrific cook, loves music, literature and art and the occasional martini. She believes in laughter and pagan prayers and agrees both with Samuel Beckett who said something like ’Life is hell and the best thing we can do about it is be kind to each other.’ Here motto is ’Good judgement comes from experience and experience comes from bad judgement.’”