Wednesday, October 03, 2007

N Is For Nanny. Oh, And Negligent.

Nanny.

Not the grandmotherly kind, but the babysitting kind.

What is UP with people who have nannies??? I just don't understand it. I guess I can see if you're part of the super-rich set and that's just how it's done, but I'm talking about regular people. WHY does the average person need a nanny??

I know there are all sorts of reasons, things like "I can't get anything done with the kids around." or "She's such a help when I'm busy with work." or "I just dont' have time to do ___________." Fill in that blank with just about anything, but no matter what that blank contains, I can't imagine a reason that isn't lame.

If you don't have time to tend to your OWN children, perhaps you shouldn't have had children in the first place. And if you can't juggle a husband, a household, a job and a kid, maybe you're not the kind of person who can handle so many things, so you should just stick with one or two of those responsibilities.

Why would you want someone else to spend all of those precious growing moments with your children while you do something else? I understand a lot of households these days need two incomes, but if you add the cost of a nanny to the expenses that already obviously exceed what you can afford, since both people need to work just to cover them, how is that a savings? If you can't afford to have a child and stay home with it, I don't think you're ready for one. It's bad enough people have kids and put them in daycare while they go to work, but to hire another person to do the things YOU are supposed to be doing, what's the point of being a mother at all?

A mother should stay home with their children. There are exceptions, of course, since there are so many single mothers out there and obviously if you find yourself in that predicament, you may have no choice. But if you are part of a two parent household and you are both out of the house, and the nanny is home with your kids, then you aren't really being parents. I have several friends and family members who juggle two and three kids in addition to everything else they do. And at least one of those couples has the means to afford a nanny but they don't want someone else raising their kids.

There are thousands of mothers who juggle husbands and partners, homes, kids and even work without any additional help. A mother should mother, and in order for her to do that, she needs to be home with her children.

Hiring a nanny, in my opinion, screams you are inept. With a capital "I."

3 comments:

MeHereNow said...

Here! Here! Well said that woman!!
I really couldn't agree more!

I was a nanny for a few years and when it was me who saw the little ones take their first step,or say their first word etc. and not their mothers then I vowed never to miss my own kids' firsts - and up to yet (4 kids in!) I've seen it all - good and bad!! And I wouldn't trade that for all the tea in China.

Brilliant post.

Michelle | Bleeding Espresso said...

I'm with you too. I can see hiring a cleaning woman or even a personal chef if you have that money to throw around and can't work in the time to do those things, but paying someone to share your children's youth? Geez. At least send them to daycare where they can socialize with other kids or something.

Anocsanamun said...

The idiot I work for now - hired a WET NURSE. A WET NURSE! because his wife could not be bothered breastfeeding the baby. She had the children to deal with. (Did I tell you each child has their own nanny?)