When you think of nannies, au pairs, governesses, babysitters, domestic servants, merry maids, you probably conjure up images of Mary Pippins, aNanny McPhee, Rosie the Robot from the Jetsons, Mr. Belvedere and last but not least, Franny Fine, played by Fran Drescher in the 1993 TV show “The Nanny” (it’s a stretch I know, but I ran out of ideas).

Y’know, I've often dreamed of being rich enough to hire myself a maid - someone to clean up after me, cook my meals, do my laundry, draw my baths and well do- just about everything!

Leaving me all the time in the world to sit back and enjoy the high life where household chores are a thing of the past.

In the new game “Nanny Mania” by Toybox Games we get a little taste of that life, but not from the privileged side. No, I guess they figured what fun would that be, so they put us down on our hands and knees as the hard-working nanny herself instead. Umm, not exactly what I had in mind, but I’m game.

Just to let you know though- I don’t do windows!

Kick up your heels, whistle a happy tune and grab your parasols, because diaper changing, bottle feeding, rugrat rearing, feather dusting, dinner prepping, and loads and loads of laundry are just some examples of the many domestic challenges that await you. Think of it a housekeeping time management strategy Sims game.

You’ve been hired to help out the Mayor of Suburbia and his ever-growing family. Since the mayor and his wife are far too busy going golfing, watching TV and taking baths to actually cook, clean up after themselves, and take care of their own kids, it falls to you the overworked and most likely underpaid nanny to single-handedly run the household.

At first this is fairly easy to do since it is only Mr. Mayor his wife Mrs. Mayor, and their baby daughter Junior Miss Mayor.

You view the house from a nice top-down cross-section of the house with its different rooms; and essentially your job is to clean, clean clean. In other words, find the messy areas which are highlighted in yellow. Using your mouse, click on them to clean them all around the house and keep doing that during the whole day.

Your multi-tasking skills and patience will be put to the test as you attempt to keep the house in tip-top shape all the while the bratty… umm, I mean “precocious” little darlings (up to 4 at this point, I guess the Mayor and the Mrs. were feeling quite friendly!), will run up behind you and systematically knock over flower vases, lamps, bookcases and couch cushions.

And the kids aren't the only mess makers. You'll also be scrubbing the tub after the Mom takes a bubble bath, as well as wiping up the muddy footprints that Dad leaves behind as he comes in from the golf course. Oh well, all in a day’s work.

All of the members of the family are creatures of habit and have certain times of the day set aside for eating, bottle feeding, diaper changing, working and watching TV.

Unfortunately, unlike most RTS games you don't get extra combo points for chaining together chores in a certain order. Too bad, because I was really getting into a pick up laundry- fix vase- turn on washing machine-make bed groove after awhile.

It’s an interesting premise for a game that is fun for a while, but then repetition sets in, just like in real life I suppose! By level 6, all of the different chores have been shown in the game and there's not much of anything to look forward to except grinding through the rest of the levels, in other words, a real depiction of a dead end job.

Unfortunately, there are just too many levels in “Nanny Mania” that play and look exactly the same, day in and day out! After awhile the only real reason I would keep going is to find out if it gets more exciting and challenging. Let me save you some time, it doesn't.

It would have been a lot cooler if they had added a family pet, or a chance to upgrade and redecorate the house, special occasions (like birthdays and holidays), a backyard, friends, and family members, like Granny coming to visit.

Or maybe even a mistress thrown in for the Mayor, but then again that would’ve made it too realistic for a casual game now wouldn’t it?! Wink. Wink.