Nannies: Not just for rich kids. The economics of childcare just SUCK. Especially in Manhattan. We found that it was cheaper to have a babysitter/nanny watch the two boys, than to send them both to daycare. And it was still really, really expensive. That semester the babysitter made more money that I did.
Amazing instagram picture of the San Diego fireworks mishap.
The snake fight portion of the dissertation defense.
A weird story about a bad review in the New York Times.
What is the goal of parenting? I meant to write a longer blog post about this article, but never got to it this week.
Apt. 11d 
The back-of-the-cigarette-pack analysis around here is that daycare is cheaper for one but after that, a nanny is less expensive. You get the added benefit of someone around the house too and no pick-up/drop-off hassles. Plus playdates.
Sounds like out of middle class circles, nannies evoke Mary Poppins and gym-going fancy schmancy moms.
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Agree about the economics (nanny cheaper once there’s more than one). I’ve also wondered about “governesses” or “tutors” or whatever we’d want to call a one/one tutor, which also seems like it could be more economically feasible than private school for 2+.
But, in day care, you loose the licensing oversight and the preschool benefits, and in school, you loose the school benefits, the multiple teachers, . . . .
I’ve never understood why people are surprised by the economics, that paying someone else to do full time child care would cost as much as many jobs. The answer, for professionals in training, is that they can’t look at the one year costs; they should consider the professional life costs (of say, not having care during your medical residency, or during your post-doc, or your lower-level position, or even, the position you’re going to have the rest of your career, but won’t have if you quit to take care of the kids for 5+ years).
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As far as the goal of parenting, I’m going with Fran Lebowitz’s idea that you can call yourself a success as a parent if your kid doesn’t grow up to use “collectable” as a noun.
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“As far as the goal of parenting, I’m going with Fran Lebowitz’s idea that you can call yourself a success as a parent if your kid doesn’t grow up to use “collectable” as a noun.”
So have all boys and be an automatic success?
Speaking of “collectables” (or collectibles), we just passed a homemade sign by the roadside that said “HOARDER SALE.”
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You don’t really get that level of honesty very often in the second-hand retail world.
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Laura, I like that you went with the term “babysitter/nanny” here. “Nanny” should be reserved for live-in childcare workers. (Yes, I know the Internal Revenue Code sees it differently.) “Babysitter” makes it clearer we’re not talking about One Percenter Land.
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“”Babysitter” makes it clearer we’re not talking about One Percenter Land.”
Lots of coastal people who aren’t anywhere near the top 1% have nannies. It’s hard to distinguish between the two categories, but in general, a nanny 1) is on the West or East Coast in an urban or suburban area 2) is a an adult pro 3) probably works out of your home 4) is often full-time and/or 5) may get actual benefits (especially in a place like DC). 6) works for a professional family. A babysitter 1) is possibly a full-time adult pro, but in that case, isn’t working in a big coastal metropolitan area 2) may work out of her own home (for instance if she has kids) 3) is not necessarily full-time 4) pretty much never gets benefits or 5) may be a student or other non-pro 6) may be covering nights out rather than a working day.
I nannied for a couple years in DC, where “nanny” is the usual terminology for a private employee who watches your child while you are working. I’ve nannied a little bit in Texas, hanging on to the term mainly to signal that 1) I’m an experienced adult and 2) I want to be paid as an adult. If I’m watching your kid while you’re at work, I’m a nanny. If a college student is watching my kid while my husband and I go out to a movie, she’s a babysitter. There’s a bit of Humpty Dumpty in that, for which I apologize, but I think the terms don’t have complete overlap.
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@Amy P – I have no problem with childcare workers coming up with their own job titles. I have a problem with folks saying they have a “nanny” as if to say “I’m a pretty big deal.”
http://decorno.blogspot.com/2008/02/bourgeouis-dictionary.html
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@Amy P,
So, how much do people pay for hoarders in your part of the world?
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Don’t know. My husband saw the actual house yesterday. There were more signs that said things like “HOARDER HEAVEN” and there were blankets and tarps just on the front lawn, plus who knows what else inside. My husband thinks that the sale was of a hoarder’s stuff (deceased?), but also aimed at hoarder buyers.
We were just moving from a bigger house into a smaller apartment and had to get rid of a lot of stuff. I eventually started to wonder about the people who were coming by to collect stuff from the curb, because everything, no matter how tatty and pointless eventually found a home.
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