Over eight years, Dolores Jacobo earned her place as an integral member of an affluent Malibu, Calif., household, where her workplace is a six-bedroom, nine-bath beachfront home with a private movie theater.

Hired to be the nanny of twin 3-month-olds, she stayed with the family after the girls started school. She transitioned from pushing strollers to shopping for groceries and ferrying the family's golden retrievers to grooming appointments. Her employers, she explains, "have busy lives" that include volunteering at school, going to the gym, visiting the chiropractor and getting various beauty treatments, like facials, manicures and pedicures.

Later this month, however, this household chief operating officer will fall victim to downsizing. She says her employers tearfully informed her that her $1,000-a-week position is being eliminated. "They told me they had to cut expenses 75%," says Ms. Jacobo, whose employer declined to be interviewed. "I am heartbroken."

The weak economy is wiping out a symbol of the wealth boom: the megananny and other high-end help.

The luxury of household help, often in the form of immigrant labor, blossomed with the thriving economy. Some nannies came to oversee entire households. Now, the dive in the value of stock portfolios and real estate has caused even prosperous families to review their finances and make new plans. People unaccustomed to doing their own housework are dealing with dirty laundry and mowing their own lawns.