63歲美國老太提供“租媽”服務

Once they reach a certain age, lots of women find motherhood exhausting, but not Brooklyn-based Nina Keneally. The 63-year-old still has lots of ‘mothering skills’ that she’s actually more than happy to rent out through a unique service called ‘NeedAMom’. Her motto is “When you need a mom… Just not YOUR mom.”
許多女性到一定年齡後，會發現自身母性已經耗盡。但紐約布魯克林的尼娜•吉妮莉可不是這樣。今年63歲的她仍身負多種“母愛技能”，而且更樂於通過特有的“NeedAMom”服務出租出去。她的名言是“當你需要媽媽……但不是親媽的時候”。

A former theatrical producer and drug-rehab counselor from Connecticut, Nina now spends all her time using her motherhood experience and her associate degree in counselling to help millennials in New York. For $40 an hour plus expenses, Nina will listen to all your problems, offer advice (free from ‘I told you so’), help you plan and shop for a dinner party, sew your buttons back on, bake you a cake, and do all sorts of other things a real mother might do. She’ll even buy and wrap a present for your actual mother.
尼娜曾經是一名戲劇製作人、一位戒毒顧問，而如今她憑藉着做母親的經驗和準心理諮詢學士學位，全身心爲紐約的千禧一代提供幫助。只需每小時40美元（再加上其他費用），尼娜會傾聽你的所有問題、爲你提供建議（但絕不會出現“我告訴過你”之類的話語）、幫你籌劃晚宴併購買相關物品、給你縫釦子、烤蛋糕，以及任何親媽可能做的其他事情。她甚至會給你親媽買禮物，並打好包裝。

Nina and her husband moved to Bushwick, Brooklyn, from Connecticut two years ago, after 30-odd years of raising their own two sons. And she realised early on that young adults back home were different in many ways. “Connecticut millennials have other goals – it’s all about jobs, houses, permanent relationships,” she said. “They go into almost a young middle age. Here, it’s a more bohemian, artistic lifestyle.” But more freedom also leads to more problems, and Nina often found herself counselling millennials who reached out to her in yoga studios and cafes.
在花費30多年將兩個兒子撫養成人後，兩年前尼娜和她的丈夫從康涅狄克州搬到紐約布魯克林的布什威克。她很早就意識到老家年輕人在很多方面的不同。“在康涅狄克州，千禧一代有不同的目標——都與工作、房子、人際關係有關”，她說道。“他們幾乎算得上年輕的中年人。而在這裏，人們走的是放蕩不羈的藝術風格”。但自由越大問題也越多，尼娜經常會輔導瑜伽室、咖啡館裏認識的千禧一代。

“As I started to live in the neighborhood, do yoga and frequent coffee shops, I’ve noticed that a lot of young people in the neighborhood wanted to talk to me about what was going on in their lives,” she told Bushwick Daily. Like this one man who was upset over losing a job and ended up pouring his heart out to Nina over a cup of coffee. She ended up rewriting his resume. Soon, so many young people were approaching her that Nina realised she could really help them by being a mother-figure in their lives. And that’s how NeedAMom was born. It’s a fairly new business and she’s had about six clients so far, all from Bushwick.
“我住進小區後，做瑜伽、頻繁出入咖啡店。我注意到鄰近的許多年輕人喜歡和我談談他們的生活”，她向《布什威剋日報》講到。一個因爲失業而沮喪的年輕人和尼娜一邊喝着咖啡，一邊傾訴內心的苦惱。最後，她給這個年輕人重寫了簡歷。很快，許多年輕人來找她。尼娜想到，自己可以以母親的形象幫助他們。而這就是NeedAMom的起源。這是一項新服務。到目前爲止尼娜共有6名客戶，均來自布什威克。

Nina’s biggest ESP is perhaps her unconditional empathy. “I’m not judgmental about anybody’s life choices; I don’t compare them to their brothers and sisters,” she said. “I have a therapeutic background, although I’m not a therapist. I can talk you through it but if you have a serious problem, I have a list of resources and can send you to a doctor or a specialist.”
無條件的感同身受可能是尼娜最強大的超感官知覺。“我不會判斷任何人生活選擇的對錯，不將他們與兄弟姐妹做比較”，她說。“儘管我不是治療師，但我有心理治療教育背景。我可以通過聊天幫你解開心結。但如果問題太嚴重，我這裏有各種資源，可以送你去看醫生或專家。”

“All the friends and people around me are the same age, and shrinks are just kinda impersonal,” said 34-year-old Natalie Chan, who sees Nina once a week after their Thursday yoga class. “She doesn’t judge. She’s just kinda, like, smiles and says, ‘Stop doing that.’ She’ll never say, ‘You’re stupid.’”
“朋友和身邊的人都年齡相仿，而精神病學家則有點不近人情，”現年34歲的娜塔莉•陳說道。每週四瑜伽課後，她都會和尼娜見一次面。”她不會判定你的對錯。她只會微笑着，告訴你‘別再那麼做了’。她從來不說，‘你真蠢’”。

Nina doesn’t have a fixed price list yet, so for now, everything she does for you will cost $40 an hour, right from bringing you chicken soup when you’re sick to watching a movie with you. But she draws the line at cleaning – “Don’t expect me to clean your closet or do your laundry,” she says. “I’m not your maid!”
由於目前還沒有固定的價目表，因此尼娜的任何服務價錢都是40美元/小時，從爲病牀上的你端來雞湯到陪你看電影。但對於打掃衛生她一概謝絕—— “別想我給你打掃壁櫥、洗衣服，我可不是女僕！”

Vocabulary

associate degree: 美國大學修滿二年課程的肄業證書
bohemian: 放蕩不羈的
shrink: 精神病醫生
impersonal: 沒有人情味的