INA in the News
MINDING THE CHILDREN: Like One of the Family
Demand for nannies in American homes has sharply increased
By Heidi Knapp Rinella, Las Vegas Review-Journal
Tuesday,
March 15, 2005
As it turns out, America's
reality shows with nanny themes are based about as much on reality
as ... well... America's reality shows with other themes.
"Would you let someone
come into your home and challenge your parenting style?" asked Pat Cascio,
president of the International Nanny Association and owner of Morningside
Nannies in Houston.
"I can't see very many of my clients being comfortable
with the person giving them that much direction," Cascio said of "Supernanny" and "Nanny
911," in which veteran nannies try to tame the households' wild beasts masquerading
as children. "I think the American way of doing it is `This is my home, I
write the paycheck, you are the employee, so that puts you one or two steps
below me, not on par with me or above me.'
" Which is not to say there isn't
a place for a nanny in the American household. In fact, there are places
for nannies in increasing numbers of American households -- currently an
estimated 1 million, Cascio said.
"We know the industry is growing rapidly," she
said. "More and more people are understanding what the nanny does and the
role she has in the household, and the convenience there is for the family."
Carol
Hale, owner of Nanny's & Granny's in Las Vegas, says that in 18 years
in the business, she has seen the demand for nannies grow dramatically.
"I
would say in the last probably seven or eight years, nannies have become
far more popular," Hale said. "I think that we, No. 1, just have a more mobile
society. People are really more likely to not live around family and friends.
In our town, especially -- we've had such an influx of people. They come
to town and they know no one."
Both Cascio and Hale said people who hire
nannies are no longer confined to the very wealthy.
"Typically, they're young
professionals," Hale said. "In our clientele we have a lot of attorneys,
doctors, business people, business owners. Young professionals with a career
who really don't want their children in day care. They want a little more
individualized care and learning for their children. And so they hire someone
to come into the home."
"If you have two children, you're probably paying
as much in day care as you would to have a private employee in your home," Cascio
said.
So just what role does the nanny hold in the household?
"I would like
to believe that the majority of nannies of children under the age of 3 are
providing 100 percent care for the children and the children's belongings,
and the rooms in which the children and the nanny live in, work in, stay
in and play in," Cascio said. "I would like to believe that parents do not
assign household duties to child-care professionals when the children are
that young."
The reason, Cascio said, is "a safety issue. I just think it's
kind of a risky situation. If you were told that today, `I would like these
four tasks done -- and by the way, watch my child, too' -- you know your
employer can judge if you get the tasks done, but she'll never know if her
child got the attention."
And the key to a successful nanny-employer relationship
is to a large part based on trust. Most families, Hale said, want a nanny
who will become a part of their lives.
"That's usually the ideal situation," she
said. "In fact, the most frequent request we have is they want a nanny that
will stay with them.
"I've had placements last incredibly long times -- 10
or 12 years," she said.
"It comes down to a chemistry thing," said Lexy Capp,
owner of Nannies and Housekeepers USA. "Does that person really want that
nanny in their home, caring for their children?"
Capp remembers one client
who knew immediately that a nanny candidate was right for her family.
"She
knew in her heart this was the one," she said. "It's sort of the feeling
of connection you get."
At the same time, a successful nanny-employer relationship
often depends on both sides remembering and honoring the nature of the arrangement.
"Generally what we suggest to our families is that they renew their nanny contracts
on a yearly basis," Hale said. "We do the initial contract for them in the office,
then we suggest that the nannies and the families put it on their calendars 60
days before the contracts expire -- that they sit down and discuss whether or
not they're going to want to continue the relationship. Are there any changes?
Have their been other children? Have the hours changed? And then to negotiate
a raise for the nanny."
Most nannies get raises on an annual basis, Hale said,
and they can expect to be paid between $400 and $700 a week, depending on the
situation.
"Seven hundred dollars is maybe twins or triplets, the number of children
and housekeeping and extended hours -- that type of thing," she said.
Capp said
the minimum her nannies earn is $10 an hour, though pay can be as much as $750
a week. She said she's placed some nannies for $45,000 a year, plus benefits.
Nanny agencies generally don't employ nannies, but charge a fee for referrals
and background checks. Hale charges a one-time placement fee of $1,700. Capp
offers three plans, priced according to the length of guarantee and number of
replacement referrals, should they be needed. The fees range from one month of
the nanny's gross salary to 12 percent of gross annual salary.
Capp's agency
also has a division that she said employs several hundred nannies who work under
the agency's insurance umbrella to provide child care at major Strip resorts.
The average nanny, Hale said, tends to be in one of two primary age groups, "although
we do have nannies in all age ranges."
"Many of them are students that are still
in school that are in their early to mid-20s," she said, "and then we see a lot
of women whose children are now grown and that's what they've done their whole
life -- taking care of children. And so they're coming back to the work force.
"There's
a core of professional nannies that do this for a living and have maybe been
through nanny training and been certified. They tend to be in their 20s and 30s.
It's really not very common."
Hale said there's a shortage of nannies in Las
Vegas, but she rejects most candidates.
"We generally will interview from 25
to 40 people to get like three people," she said. "Most people that walk through
that door, I'd no more place with your children than I'd rise up and fly."
Those
applicants, she said, come in "because somebody needs a job and they woke up
that morning and they say, `anybody can raise kids.' They can't pass the background
check, they can't get the health card. We look for criminal misdemeanors as well
as felony convictions." Additionally, she said, they do a credit check and a
driver's license check, and nannies must know CPR.
"We make a substantial investment
in anyone we choose to process," Capp said. "We turn down about 50 percent of
our applicants. We have one division that all they do is background checks. We
also do one-on-one interviews with placement counselors."
"A lot of people will
give you their work history, and they'll conveniently slip the fact that they
lived in Ohio for two years, because they had a problem in Ohio," Hale said. "But
then when you do a credit check, there's all these loans for stores in Ohio.
An agency that knows what they're doing will then do a criminal check in Ohio.
"That's
what you're paying an agency for -- that kind of thing. We do it every day. We
know what to look for. The average family doesn't."
For aspiring nannies, Hale
advises, "get some experience or take a professional training program. If they
come in with no experience, we put them on our sitter service so they can get
some experience.
"And I would say don't
do it because you need money. Do the job because you truly love kids. Being
a nanny is not an easy job."