Are Nannies Professionals in the Child Care Industry?

Why Are We Asking?  Because no one in the child care Industry is!

By Alyce Desrosiers

President of The Institute for Families and Nannies and Founder/Managing Director of Chirp! Connecting Families and Nannies

Look around in the parks, playgrounds, and libraries of America and inevitably you’ll see nannies pushing strollers, navigating toddler tantrums and managing challenging behavior among preschoolers.  Now take a step back and witness the amount of Federal, State, Community support that is given to preschool teachers, family daycare providers and administrators to ensure quality care. Humming vigorously in the background are public and privately funded industry organizations, universities and colleges providing education, training, research, and support to this same cohort of childcare providers. Where are nannies in these initiatives to ensure the best care for America’s children?  The answer: in the shadows, barely seen or acknowledged. Nannies are and continue to be the invisible members of the childcare workforce.

In this recorded interview, Alyce Desrosiers and Thaty Oliveira provide insight to explain this pervasive, and worrisome issue that has had negative consequences historically for the nanny industry and profound implications for the future. You can find slides of their conversation here.

Who Doesn’t ‘See’ Nannies?

The Federal, State and Local government  

Unlike someone working in a preschool or family daycare, there exists no government regulation ensuring that nannies meet basic health, safety or criminal background checks as a condition of employment. The Federal government needs to support both parents and nannies to ensure basic requirements are met for all members of the childcare workforce.

Childcare industry organizations and professionals, such as NAEYC, Zero to Three, Center for the Study of Childcare Employment, U.S Chamber of Commerce:  These organizations need to acknowledge, emphasize, support and include nannies more in their study groups, conferences, research, and writings.

Universities and College education and training programs.  Early childhood education programs need to include a track in their programs focusing on the unique aspects of nannying.  

American culture

As a culture, we are ambivalent about acknowledging nannies.  We want nannies and we need them but we don’t want to know they are there at all.  As a culture, we need to endorse and recognize nannies as having an important role in supporting families to give the best care for children.

The Nanny Industry

We see nannies but are we inclusive enough?  Nannies are a diverse yet fragmented group of individuals from all segments of American society.  Are we ‘seeing’ everyone in our industry and within our workforce?

Why Don’t We ‘See’ Nannies?

Ambivalence plays a key role. Nannies do the work mother’s do and they get paid to do it.  As a society, we are very reluctant to hand over even part of the esteemed role of ‘motherhood’ to another, particularly a non-familial stranger.  We can’t merge the conflicting realities that we pay someone to love our children. We want nannies to love and keep children safe, but that’s what mothers are supposed to do. If nannies care for children for long hours every day of the week during the most important years of a child’s life, then who becomes ‘mom’ and who does the ‘better’ job? Undercover is the profound question:  Who is raising our kids?

With these questions before us, it’s easier not to see nannies at all.

Why Are We Asking the Question:  Are Nannies Professional?

Research over the past 30 years shows the formative years 0-5 are critical to a child’s development.  The public is asking for clarity about who childcare professionals are, what they do and how they do it.  While the public wants answers they also recognize the quality of care workers provide is inadequate. The child care industry is searching inward for solutions to professionalize the industry to ensure quality care and give parents the reassurances they need that their child is getting the best care possible.

The Voice of the NAEYC Looking Inward

“This is an exciting time in early childhood education. Given early educators’ critical role in children’s early learning and development, experts are urging significant policy shifts and substantial new investments to revamp how teachers, leaders, and other professionals working with young children are prepared, supported, and compensated.  These changes signal a growing understanding that the well-being and skill of this workforce is key to children’s learning.

But there’s a big obstacle in the way.  The field can’t shape policy decisions or allocate resources effectively without first being able to answer basic questions about the early childhood workforce – its size and key characteristics across settings, for example.

The field can’t confidently answer these questions because data on this workforce have not been consistently or systematically collected.” *

Why Aren’t Nannies Sitting at This Table?

This is a question nannies should be asking.

• Are we professionals?
• Are we members of the child care industry?
• Should we be ‘seen’ as professionals, held accountable as other child care professionals to provide quality care?   

As an industry:

• Do we ‘see everyone’?  Are we inclusive?
• Who are nannies?  How do we define ourselves?
• What do nannies do?  What recognizable standards do we all agree on?
• What qualifications do nannies need?  Is professional development required? Is licensure required?
• What accountability do nannies have?  To Whom?

Alyce Desrosiers is a licensed clinical social worker and the founder and managing director of Chirp Connecting Families and Nannies LLC. For the past 20 years, Chirp has helped San Francisco families find, hire and employ Nannies that are the right fit for their needs and lifestyle. In addition to her latest book The Nanny Manual, she is the author of two previous books, Finding a Nanny for Your Child in the San Francisco Bay Area and Nannies for Modern Moms. Alyce is also the founder of the non-profit, The Institute for Families and Nannies, with the mission to educate, inform and support the relationships between parents and Nannies to further the development of young children. www.chirpchirpchirp.com

The Institute for Families and Nannies are committed to professionalizing the nanny industry.  Information is available online: www.tiffan.org

*Missing Information Hampers Policymaking for Young Children, Center for the Study of Childcare Employment, Workforce Data, page 1, May 7, 2018 by Caitlin Mclean http://cscce.berkeley.edu/missing-information-hampers-policymaking-for-young-children/ <http://cscce.berkeley.edu/missing-information-hampers-policymaking-for-young-children/*

THE VIEWS AND OPINIONS EXPRESSED IN THIS ARTICLE ARE THOSE OF THE AUTHORS AND DO NOT NECESSARILY REFLECT THE OFFICIAL POLICY OR POSITION OF THE INTERNATIONAL NANNY ASSOCIATION. THE CONTENTS OF THIS BLOG POST ARE INTENDED TO CONVEY GENERAL INFORMATION ONLY AND NOT TO PROVIDE LEGAL ADVICE OR OPINIONS. THE CONTENTS OF THIS POST SHOULD NOT BE CONSTRUED AS, AND SHOULD NOT BE RELIED UPON FOR, LEGAL OR TAX ADVICE IN ANY PARTICULAR CIRCUMSTANCE OR FACT SITUATION. THE INFORMATION PRESENTED IN THIS POST MAY NOT REFLECT THE MOST CURRENT LEGAL DEVELOPMENTS. NO ACTION SHOULD BE TAKEN IN RELIANCE ON THE INFORMATION CONTAINED IN THIS POST THE INA DISCLAIM ALL LIABILITY IN RESPECT TO ACTIONS TAKEN OR NOT TAKEN BASED ON ANY OR ALL OF THE CONTENTS OF THIS POST TO THE FULLEST EXTENT PERMITTED BY LAW. THE INTERNATIONAL NANNY ASSOCIATION RECOMMENDS THAT AN ATTORNEY SHOULD BE CONTACTED FOR ADVICE ON SPECIFIC LEGAL ISSUES.