Just wondering
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Anonymous
I am a Spanish speaking nanny, of Mexican decent, but was born and raised in the USA. I'm even certified in teaching Spanish as a second language. And you can tell from my profile picture and my first name that I am Latina. I have stopped answering any posts asking for a Spanish speaking nanny because they are only looking for undocumented and very inexpensive nannies. As soon as they hear my voice on the telephone I would get comments like, "You don't have an accent..." or "What country are you from?" and then never hear from them again. And as fluent Spanish speaker, I have talked to hundreds of Latina nannies over the years and most are making barely over minimum wage (and some less than minimum wage) and required to clean and cook for the family. One poor nanny was working for an Jewish Orthodox family and wasn't allowed to bring her own food to their kosher home for her 10 hour work day and wasn't allowed to eat their food. A few of the nannies I have spoken to have also talked about veiled threats when they complain about anything - like "You know you aren't even supposed to be working in this country". |
Anonymous
| I assume that anyone who has a foreign nanny is underpaying them and that the nanny is illegal. Just a natural assumption.... |
Anonymous
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I live in SoCal and it is considered an asset to speak Spanish fluently.
So I guess it could depend on what part of the country you reside in. |
Anonymous
| So sad the way many of these parent "employers" are quite rich themselves. Shame on them! |
Anonymous
I am the PP who grew up in Los Angeles and if having a Spanish speaking nanny made you fluent in Spanish then everyone in my high school would have been fluent in Spanish. It simply wasn't true. You learn a few words and phrases as a child and then forget them before high school. Speaking Spanish isn't an asset in SoCal unless you often deal with Spanish speaking workers (like as a construction foreman or landscape architect). |
Anonymous
+1 I make the same assumption. |
Anonymous
Lo siento Sweets. I think the title of this post should be: just wondering... Why do most families prefer to hire a nanny over age 45 with grown kids. That's been an obvious preference for a while. Just look at who's at Gymboree, library classes, the park, etc with their charges. And not on their cell phone 24/7. |
Anonymous
I have seen he plague of latino nannies for years. I see people hire non-english speaking nannies for their kids with language delays. I see families with two very active, sporty, non-stop school age boys hire spanish nannies who only walk them to school and make sure they don't die; it's so sad that they don't hire anyone to play with their kids. Also my experiences don't match your regarding cell phones. I see these latino nannies, specifically the younger ones who do actually speak some broken english, on their phones CONSTANTLY. And while a young american nanny might text a lot, these nannies seem to be engaged in conversation 24/7. If I had to choose between two negatives I would take my nanny sending occasional text messages while interacting with my child over a nanny on the phone for 45 minutes while my child sits in the crib or sandbox alone. |
Anonymous
Please. The stereotypical DC nanny is an over-weight, Latina texting while her charges play in the park or water-park. Texting and posting on DCCUm perhaps? I can't imagine who else they would be texting constantly. |
Anonymous
| Wow. There is so much stereotyping and racism in this thread on both sides I don't even know where to begin. As an MB who has employed both a Latina nanny and a Caucasian nanny, I'll say that we paid them both the exact same wage and offered the same benefits. We ended up spending a bit more with the latina nanny because we contributed to her health insurance (she was single so didn't have a spouse who had insurance). We chose her because she had a ton of experience, had raised her own kids and was very warm with our children. It had NOTHING to do with being cheap or being willing to be treated like "the help." That's ridiculous and offensive to nannies and MB's both. |
Anonymous
| I also always make the assumption that a Latina nanny is being paid horribly and is working illegally. |
Anonymous
And if I saw your Latina nanny with your children I would assume she was being paid poorly and under-the-table. And I would automatically make an assumption about you. I'm sorry - that is just the way it is after seeing literally thousands of undocumented Hispanic women taking care of white mother's children over the years. |
Anonymous
Me too. And both nannies were citizen of the US, fluent in english, experienced and incredibly well referenced. Sure, there are situations where I imagine the stereotypes apply - as with some situations involving filipino live-ins, etc... But it simply isn't true across the board and I completely agree w/ the quoted poster's last sentence. |
Anonymous
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If someone feels the need to post that in their ad, they are obviously looking for a cheap immigrant. Hiring a Latina nanny because she was the person you felt was best for the job is one thing, specifying in the ad that you're looking for a specific race to hire (one with a lot of illegal immigrants) everyone knows what you're looking for.
-Signed a Latina nanny who also stopped responding to such ads because the second they realize that I am not a recent immigrant, suddenly they aren't interested. They're not interested in the Spanish language, they want an immigrant, but you can't say that. |
Anonymous
Actually the Hispanic nannies I see aged 40-65 yo are the most engaged, loving and focused nannies I see at the classes and parks! Not over-weight either. They probably take a lot of pride in their work and keeping up the house as well. I doubt they are on this message board, I've never seen any real ethnic flavor here except on the job postings. |