Source : http://articles.latimes.com/2008/apr/23/business/fi-lazarus23
It's perhaps the touchiest decision parents can make: whether to invite a total stranger into their home to look after the kids.
Thousands of Southern California families -- those with the financial means, that is -- routinely entrust nannies with this unique responsibility. But finding someone trustworthy is much easier said than done.
You could take your chances with websites like Craigslist, where listings for nannies proliferate. Or, for a fee of thousands of dollars, you could turn to an agency that all but guarantees a hassle-free experience.Source : http://jobs.aol.com/articles/2009/08/15/confessions-of-a-nanny/
Gelila Puck, wife of celebrity chef Wolfgang Puck (of Spago fame), opted for the latter course when she and her husband decided about six weeks ago to hire a new nanny for their two young sons.
"I thought an agency would be the safest thing to do," she told me. "Now I feel so betrayed."
What the Pucks say happened to them illustrates the buyer-beware nature of the nanny business, which is subject to no state or federal regulations beyond ordinary labor laws. It also shows the importance of checking references yourself, rather than relying on an intermediary.
The Pucks were referred by an acquaintance to a Los Angeles agency, which, according to the company's website, has been operating since 1995.
Like many such agencies, this one on the Westside charges clients a one-time fee of 15% of the nanny's annual salary. This fee can range from $6,000 to $12,000.
Gelila Puck said she contacted the owner of the agency, who assured her that she deals frequently with prominent Southern California families. The owner tossed out the names of well-known movie and TV stars as regular clients.
"I felt that this was a woman I could trust," Puck said.
She said the owner eventually introduced her to a nanny whose resume stated that she'd worked from 1995 to 1999 for a Los Angeles family, from 2000 to 2005 for a family in Woodland Hills and from 2005 to 2006 for a family in Santa Monica.
"The thing that impressed me most was that she'd been at a single home for five years," Puck said. "That shows some stability."
Written references were provided to Puck by the agency for the L.A. and Santa Monica families, but not for the family in Woodland Hills where the nanny had worked longest.
Puck said she spoke with the former Santa Monica employer and then received an early-morning voice mail from the former Woodland Hills employer, who was named on the nanny's resume.
Puck kept the voice mail and played it for me.
"Hi, Gelila," it began. The agency owner "gave me your number for reference to [the nanny]. She worked with me from 2000 to 2005. She was the nanny mainly. She did some light housekeeping.
"What else can I say?" the message continued. "She drove and she did some errands sometimes. She was a really nice lady. The reason why she doesn't work anymore is because my children are getting bigger and older, and I didn't need her as much. She was a very good help. I would recommend her to you. She's a wonderful lady."
Puck hired the nanny for a salary of about $40,000, resulting in a fee of nearly $6,000 for the agency. The nanny, described by Puck as a Guatemala native in her late 30s, moved into the family's Beverly Hills home.
Shortly after joining the household, the nanny accompanied the family on a trip to New York, where
Wolfgang Puck received a culinary award. After they returned to Beverly Hills, Gelila Puck decided to call the Woodland Hills employer back just to close the loop on the earlier voice mail. "I still wanted a mother-to-mother talk with her," she said.
Puck said the employer had no idea why she was calling. "She said she had never used a nanny," Puck said.
Alarmed, Puck said she called the nanny-agency owner and asked if there had been a misunderstanding. She said the owner told her that the nanny's former employer was probably just being careful.
Puck allowed a few days to pass and then called the former employer back. She said she told her she had a feeling that the employer was hiding something and she begged her to say what it was. "I didn't want my children to be in any danger," Puck said.
It was at this point, she said, that the former employer said she was actually a friend of the agency owner and had been asked to lie about having employed the nanny. "She said she didn't know who this nanny was," Puck said.
"When I found out, I broke down. I had exposed my two children to a nanny we didn't really know anything about. For all I knew, she could have hurt them."
Puck said she persuaded the former employer to join her on a three-way call with the agency owner. Puck didn't reveal at first that she was on the line.
She said the former employer accused the agency owner of getting her into trouble, and that the owner tried to calm her down by saying things weren't as bad as they seemed.
Confessions of a Nanny
Anne Arnold was fresh out of college and a nanny. She thought she could handle 15-hour workdays and being one of the six servants in an Italian manor. It was when she suspected the family of laundering money that she decided there were easier (and less dangerous) ways to become fluent in Italian. 'The Nanny Diaries,' brought the seedy underbelly of polite society to the forefront through the experience of an au pair.
While Hollywood tends to exaggerate, it turns out the nanny profession is full of true horror stories, the kind that could provide the movie industry with unbelievable plots for years to come.
Not Quite Like 'Mary Poppins'
The expectations aspiring nannies have going into a job are often quashed when they learn what their living situation will entail. Working in someone's home can often mean sacrificing your privacy and personal space. The Runaway Nanny, an anonymous blogger, found that she'd be sharing her bedroom with two children and had been given a total of three drawers for her clothes only after she arrived at the family's home. "My first thought was to not even bother unpacking, run down to my car and drive away as quickly as possible," she wrote of the twin bed and tiny closet that she'll be using for the rest of this year.
The workplace of a nanny is anything but traditional, and employers seem to cross the line easier when the workplace is their own home. Anne Arnold had only barely started before leaving her first post in Bologna, Italy, when she discovered the reason the family needed a new nanny. "The husband had come into the previous nanny's room during the night to seduce her. I left a few days later to work for another family," says Arnold.
Although the second family had a bigger pool and paid more, Arnold found her personal freedoms would be under a literal lockdown. Iron curtains, six inches thick, sealed the windows at midnight sharp. She would need to wake up her employers to disengage the alarm system if she was not back to the house by then. The security precautions were to protect the original Renaissance art that blanketed an entire wall, a display of wealth that set off early warning bells for the new nanny.
Money or Respect?
Many nannies are attracted to the perks of working for a wealthy family or just looking for summer employment. According to The Nanny Network, a nanny can expect to earn $9 to $12 per hour starting out, up to $18 to $20 per hour with more experience. The U.S. Department of Labor estimates that salaried employees at daycare facilities will have a lower starting wage, closer to $6.75 to $10.01 per hour. A live-in au pair often receives weekly pay that begins at $350.
A decent wage still can't compensate for potentially abusive situations. Arnold struggled with a boss who scolded her with contradictory instructions on consecutive days and who offered precise directives on every task down to ironing the lace on the girl's socks. Arnold attributed the vacillating moods of her employer to a belief that the husband was likely cheating, an explosive situation that Arnold was powerless to acknowledge and yet made her work environment unbearable.
She hit rock bottom on a family holiday to Scotland when one of the children refused to stop jumping on the bed. "We don't have to listen to you. You are my mommy's slave," said her six-year-old charge. While still trying to process that comment a day later, she brought the children into the kitchen to discover the children's father and two other men sitting around a table on which three suitcases sat stacked with various currencies. As the men counted and exchanged bills, the family's grandmother yelled "Tutti fuori!" (Everyone out!) to Arnold and the children. Shortly thereafter, Arnold called a cab, headed for the train station and ended her career as a nanny.
Right at Home
Despite the adventures of Arnold, the allure of being a nanny still draws thousands of young women looking for the chance to care for children and avoid the drudgery of office work. Brooke Grant returned to Kansas City from her first summer in college and agreed to be a nanny for her mother's co-worker. She hoped it would be a laidback summer.
She got her wish, and that summer still remains one of her fondest memories. The two children, an 11-year-old girl and seven-year-old boy, were polite and took to Grant immediately. On the rare occasions that they misbehaved, she found that the children's parents respected her position as a disciplinarian. "The parents were laid back. They were really supportive and stepped in if I needed help. I lucked out," says Grant. The eldest daughter helped out around the house, and was often away at day camp or swimming lessons. Her younger brother wanted to spend the entire summer by the pool, so Grant would often take him to a nearby house where her best friend was a nanny to a girl of the same age. "It was the greatest summer job ever," says Grant, "We were getting paid to lay out every day and watch kids that were really well behaved."
When Nannies Grow Up
A decade later, Grant is a parent and has begun to look at nannies from a very different perspective. Her daughter is only five months old, and Grant can see how the care your child is receiving can be your biggest priority. "I'm a little more understanding of overprotective, neurotic parents. I think I would try and make sure the nanny was doing what I want them to be doing with my kids. It would be hard not to check in," admits Grant.
The biggest concern for parents is that nannies act differently when parents are out of sight. Technology has led to nanny-cams hidden in teddy bears and a whole industry geared toward keeping an eye on child caretakers. Nannies behaving badly in public have even inspired a Web site, I SAW YOUR NANNY, a blog where readers submit tales of nannies gone wild.
Opportunities Abound
Accordingly, the nanny industry features a lot of turnover. Whether someone is fired for cause or leaves after a summer to return to school, opportunities are available for those looking to work with children. The U.S. Department of Labor estimates that 1.3 million people were employed as childcare workers in 2004.
If you're looking for a chance to travel or spend a summer in a vacation town, nanny positions shouldn't be hard to find. For those who aren't ready to live with a family or don't have time for a 24-hour commitment, part-time employment with a neighborhood family is always an option.
Prospective nannies should make sure they understand the demands of the family and what the living situation will entail before heading to a place far removed from their support system. It's one thing to not have a place to store your clothing, but quite another to feel like you're working for someone who is breaking the law.
Be sure to bring your diary, because who knows when Hollywood may come calling.
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