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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]There is an article in the Huffington Post this morning written by a SAHM talking about how it is impossible to keep her house clean and her baby cared for during the day.  When her husband gets home, she writes about how he helps her with 50% of the housework.  I read the article and couldn't help but think that if this woman had a nanny she would expect the nanny to do it all.  Why is that?  [/quote]

Some people believe

Nanny = slave

The saddest part about your statement is that it is women exploiting other women.  SAHMs know how hard their job is and they have 16 to 18 waking hours/7 days a week to do it.  The demeaning comments posted by mothers mocking a nanny's education and choice of career is simply stunning.

[/quote][/quote]

I don't think the MBs are mocking a nanny's education.  I think the problem is the nanny's using their degree as a reason to do things they don't want to do.  FWIW I don't think nanny's should be doing the parent's laundry or making their beds.  That's not the nanny's job and I have no problem with the nannies saying they don't want to do that but using their degree as an excuse is just silly.  I'm a physician but sometimes I clean dishes, fix a computer or change a printer cartridge at work.  If I said to my employer "I went to medical school.  My job is to see patients, I didn't get a medical degree to do x,y or z" I'd quickly find myself out of a job.

I think the best nanny/employer relationships are based on mutual respect.  As I said before, I'd never expect my nanny to do my laundry or make my bed but when the children are napping she will do any number of things to help me out.  I've never asked her to do anything other than the children's laundry but when she has time she has emptied the dishwasher, organized my freezer and vacuumed the family room, among other things she does to help me enormously.  She knows I appreciate it and in turn if she needs to leave a little early or needs my help with something I will gladly do it.

I think a lot of the animosity we see on here comes from people who did not have similar relationships with their employer/nanny.  The nanny who posted a few days ago explaining that she wouldn't do parent's laundry or make their beds but has a whole list of things she does do during nap time sounds like a great nanny to me.  I think the problem people have are with those nannies who sit in front of the tv for 3-4 hours while the children nap and then come here and complain that their job isn't to do anything other than take care of children.  Conversely, nannies take issue with those employers who give them long lists of household chores they want the nanny to do with no regard for how long that will take or the fact that the nanny needs some break time too.[/quote]

You sound very reasonable, and I appreciate your post. If you look up thread, there were a few posts about "if you didn't want this kind of job, you should've gone to school". MBs on this board frequently mock nannies for their chosen job, and make false assumptions that we are uneducated and unmotivated. That is why you see some nannies trot out there education. We are not all uneducated, nor are we all motivated. I too have a degree in education, and I DO plan educational activities during nap time, yet I was mocked for saying so on this thread. Nannies don't take offense to employers advertising for jobs looking for light housekeeping. We take offense to the idea that every nanny should be doing housekeeping during nap time, and if she doesn't she is lazy, entitled, dishonest, pick your insult. A nanny is a child care provider, and one who doesn't want to be a housekeeper is no less a nanny, and she may be a damn good one. [/quote]

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