Letters to the Editor

• @alararodgers or anyone else

  [Read the article: The other mothers]
  [Read more letters about this article: Here]

  I'd seriously like to know where all these white, middle class, educated young women wanting to be full or part time nannies are, especially the ones who are TWENTY SIX YEARS OLD (and yet have a 12 year child, apparently having given birh at 14), and who will accept a full-time salary of $10-$12 an hour?

  What mystical city on the hill do you live in, Ms. Rodgers? Souix Falls, South Dakota? Because I have a very hard time imagining how a 26 year old college grad US citizen could possibly live and support her 12 year old child on roughly $20,000 a year in a place like Manhattan, Boston, San Francisco, Los Angeles...especially when a white, middle-class college grad US citizen can probably get a traditional job paying almost twice as much money, and which does not involve handling poopy diapers.

  Do you pay social security taxes on top of that ten bucks an hour? Health insurance? 401K? Disabilty insurance? Paid vacations? Overtime at time-and-a-half? Because if you don't, you are exploiting your "nanny" whether not she is white or black or brown.

  Yes, you are supposed to pay at least the SS taxes and overtime to household help -- it's the law and it tripped up Kimba Woods some years back -- but frankly, most people do not do this. It's much easier and cheaper to hire an illegal or desperate immigrant worker.

  I seriously do not think I am hallucinating or missreporting what what I have seen in playgrounds in major US cities, which is virtually ALL black and brown, heavily-accented child care providers. The few exceptions were from Eastern Europe, and probably exploited the same way.

  The situation may be different if you live in a small town, or the rural South or mid-west or something.

  I live in Ohio, and one of my closest friends had a "nanny" for her children for about 8 years. The nanny was indeed white, middle-aged and had teenage children of her own. She was also a welfare cheat, who was collecting ADC and welfare while working for my friend, which was how she could manage to only charge her $5.75-$6.25 an hour and still get by...without health insurance (she had Medicaid) or benefits. So, yes, I do know that you can find white child care home workers in some regions of the country, but I gathered the discussion was about major metropolitan areas with a lot of immigrant workers. The article specifically addressed nannies who were immigrants and racially different than the family.

  Lastly: if ANY home child care worker is a nanny "cuz that's what they want to be called", then what the heck are the school-trained, degreed, English nannies with their CCE degrees and years of education? You know, you can CALL yourself anything you wish, especially if you want to beef up your own (or someone else's) self-importance.

  So, for future reference, you may call me Empress Marie of Roumania. Cuz that's what I'd like to be called, y'all.

  Permalink Wednesday, June 13, 2007 12:27 PM