Anonymous wrote:Believe it or not, my wife, an African-American, has never been (openly) mistaken for the nanny of our 8 year old who looks white, has green eyes and brown hair with blond highlights. We live in DC. Clearly there is something in the way she carries herself and interacts with dd that communicates a parent-child relationship. I'm sure there's some study that has been done on how parents vs caregivers interact with relation to subtle differences in eye contact, touch, tone of voice, etc.
You're sure there is some study? Link it instead of guessing.
A good caregiver can interact with a child as well as a parent.
People probably don't even ask because they assume she is a nanny.
I'm a nanny and people are ALWAYS telling me how much my charge looks like me.