‘Today’s Dylan Dreyer Admits She Had Guilt Over Having a Nanny to Help Raise Her 3 Sons

Dylan Dreyer‘s new podcast is all about discussing the ups and downs of parenting, and she kicked off the show’s release with a candid confession.

The first two episodes of Dreyer’s first-ever Today podcast, The Parent Chat, dropped on Thursday, April 2. During the second episode, Dreyer and her guest, Erin Andrews, chatted about the struggles of finding a work/life balance as the mothers of young kids. In particular, the two women shared their experiences with having nannies.

“I read an article where you were quoted in it. [You] were saying it’s almost embarrassing, sometimes, to admit that you have a nanny,” Dreyer stated. “And it’s wild because my oldest — we’ve had our nanny since he was three months old. Because I do work full-time.” (Dreyer shares her three sons — Calvin, Oliver, and Rusty — with her estranged husband, Brian Fichera.)

Dreyer explained that the need for a nanny largely stems from the absence of family members nearby. “My parents don’t live close. My mom’s in Florida. My brother’s in Oregon. My other brother’s in Florida. My in-laws are up in Boston,” she told Andrews. “It used to be where you lived in a community. You lived in a neighborhood where your family was close by, and you had people that could watch your kids for you.”

She continued, “Trust me, I would love to not have to pay somebody to help me watch my kids. But at the same time, I couldn’t have the career I have, and I love my job. I’ve been doing it, like, half my life, I’ve been doing this job.”

Andrews chimed in, stating, “And you should. You should be able to.” Dreyer went on to add, “I want my kids to see me working hard and making the sacrifices, yet cooking dinner or doing what I can at home. But I do think there’s nothing wrong with having a village to help you get it done.”

Dreyer welcomed her eldest son, Calvin, in 2016, four years after she joined the Today family as a Weekend Today weather anchor. She became a co-host of the third hour of Today in 2019 and welcomed her son Oliver the following year. She and Fichera welcomed their youngest son, Rusty, in 2021.

Andrews, for her part, recalled returning to work shortly after she and her husband, Jarret Stoll, welcomed their son, Mack, via surrogate in June 2023. Andrews — who works as a sportscaster for Fox Sports — previously opened up about her struggles with fertility.

“I was obviously being asked about having a baby and, ‘How do you do it and keep it all together?’ I’m like, ‘I’m not,'” she shared. “And Nanny Connie had said to me, ‘It’s okay to admit you have help because it’s worse to paint this picture for people, like, ‘I’m doing it all.’ I can’t do it all. There’s no way.”

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Dreyer said that as public figures, it’s important for their fans to know they can’t do it all because it sets “unrealistic expectations for the mom who’s sitting there struggling.” She also gave Andrews some hope for finding a better work/life balance as her son gets older.

“You will notice once Mack goes to school, though, your life will, there’s just this guilt that comes off of you, because it’s like, ‘He’s at school. That’s not my fault, if I have to work during the day,'” Dreyer noted. “For me, working late is to, like, 2, 3 in the afternoon. It’s like, ‘They’re still at school.’ So, school helps a lot when it comes to mom guilt, I’ve noticed.”

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