babble » blogs » Strollerderby
Strollerderby
Do we show our domestic workers enough respect?
It’s been a big moment for Nanny Power. When Amy Poehler accepted her Time 100 award, she thanked her children’s nannies. In the recent article deconstructing the motives behind Obama’s mother’s trip to Indonesia—widely thought to be a formative experience for the future president—the author implied that access to affordable childcare and domestic help abroad may have been a factor. Royal Wedding buzz noted the prominent presence of William’s former nanny, Tiggy Legge-Bourke. (Some even suggested that William was attracted to Kate because of her resemblance to Tiggy—and that Prince Charles was drawn to Camilla because she looked like his own nanny.) And this week’s T magazine featured a piece about a young woman who’s dedicated herself to the rights of nannies and domestic workers.
To me, the question isn’t so much why nannies are getting so much attention at the moment, but: What took us so long?
Amy Poehler toasts the women who make it happen: childcare workers.
Amy Poehler is the best, you know. She has one of the funniest shows on TV, she puts her time, face and name behind a totally under-acknowledge website/blog/virtual gathering place for tween girls, Smart Girls at the Party. She has two young boys, works hard, is smart, makes us laugh.
She was our favorite Amy named to the Time 100, a list of the most influential people in the world as chosen by representatives from Time magazine. A speech she made last night at a gala honoring the Time 100 only makes us love her more.
She was called up to give a toast, so she cracked a few jokes, named some names and let on that maybe she had a bit too much to drink. She used the last minute of her time to say thanks … to her nannies.
Know what else? She thanked your nanny/babysitter/childcare worker, too. Continue reading »
What secrets is your babysitter keeping from you?
I’m guilty of virtually never leaving my children with a babysitter. Which is not a good thing for one’s marriage, I assure you. I am just too freaked out to leave my kids with a stranger and there isn’t really any obvious babysitter candidate where we live. Oh yeah, and I’m too lazy to go about hiring someone.
But after reading an article in Yahoo! yesterday, maybe I’m making the right choice. The article details ten things your child care provider won’t tell you. Some of them were obvious, like be sure and thank your nanny, so I dumped those and focused on those you may not have thought about. Continue reading »
Bye-bye, JoJo.
Supernanny Jo Frost told The New York Post this week that the current season of her show will be her last. The 39-year-old television star says she needs more balance in her life, and hopes to have a baby of her own within the next few years.
Before she can set her sights on having a child, the adorable Brit must return to England to move out of her Dad’s house, where she technically resides. Frost is obviously no slacker slouch, having written four books in six years. She’s been traveling constantly during that time and has helped 115 families transform their home environment from out-of-control crazy to in-control and cozy. Of course, those are just the families Frost has worked with in person; she’s helped countless other families adopt successful parenting techniques, including mine. Continue reading »
Myth: all nannies look like this.
Today Babble is running a piece debunking popular myths about nannies. Despite what books like The Nanny Diaries and Jude Law’s love life would have you believe, author Candi Wingate claims, “the truth is that millions of families enjoy working with nannies — scandal-free.”
When it comes to hiring a nanny, scandal isn’t the first thing that pops into my mind. I thought about hiring a nanny when my daughter was born — after all, it’s what New Yorkers do — but I was sure I wouldn’t be able to afford one. Wingate says hiring a nanny may not be as cost-prohibitive as I think, but I’m not convinced. Here’s my take on a few of the nine common misconceptions about nannies she describes:
Myth #1. Nannies are for the wealthy. When asked their family income, 34% of our 796 respondents reported earning less than $100,000 per year, 22% earned between $100,000 and $150,000, 17.5% earned between $150,000 and $200,000, and 26.5% earned over $200,000.
For those of you with me in the under $100,000 per year category, it’s easy to scoff and say, “Sure, a third of people who hire a nanny make less than 100K annually, but a third also make more than double that. Nonetheless, Wingate notes, “If you have two or more children, hiring a nanny may be more cost effective than daycare.” That I can believe. She adds, “If you don’t need full-time help, sharing a nanny with another family is a way to cut down on costs without sacrificing benefits.” But isn’t a part-time nanny just a babysitter? Hmm … that leads me to Wingate’s next point.
Paying the sitter on the books is no piece of cake.
Did you pay any one babysitter more than $1,700 in 2009? If you did, she’s considered your employee–and those “nanny taxes” of Zoe Baird fame apply to you. It’s an incredibly low threshold–100 hours at $17 an hour or 170 hours at $10, or about 20 or 30 evenings work, and it applied to us this year. So we set out to pay our babysitter legally. Better for her–she’ll earn credit towards social security and have reportable income if she needs to get a loan. Better for us because it’s just better to follow the rules.
It turned out to be a lot harder than you’d think. Continue reading »
Do you ever feel like a kid playing grown up, or at least not nearly as competent or sophisticated as your own parents seemed during your childhood? That’s the question novelist Chris Bohjalian asks in What Would I Tell Her: 28 Devoted Dads on Bringing Up, Holding On and Letting Go of Their Daughters. He writes: “The reality is a lot of child rearing is ad-libbing, but it has always seemed to your mother and me that we did more ad-libbing than most.” — Motherlode
Could the iPad be a tool for kids with autism? At Blogher, Shannon Des Roc writes about how an iPad — won in a raffle — has transformed her autistic son’s life. Her post includes several apps that have quickly become favorites with her son.
Joslyn Gray 
Amber Doty 
Julianna Miner 
Monica Bielanko 
Sierra Black 
Meredith Carroll 
Carolyn Castiglia 
Sunny Chanel 
Madeline Holler 
Wendy Michaels 
Rebecca Odes 
Danielle Smith 
Danielle Sullivan 
Katherine Stone 
The Walt Disney Company supports Babble as a platform dedicated to honest, engaged, informed, intelligent and open conversation about parenting. However, the opinions expressed on this site are those of individual parents/writers and do not reflect the views of Disney. In addition, content provided on this site is for entertainment or informational purposes only and should not be construed as medical advice, diagnosis, treatment, or safety advice.
9