Jezebel 
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New York, 2:42 AM
Mon Nov 30
18 posts in the last 24 hours
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09/22/09
I also hate when people complain about having to pay people more for jobs like this. Really? You don't think they deserve a decent pay for caring for your children all day???
I hate that jobs like caring for children or cleaning are considered "low" and aren't paid well. Those are some physically and mentally demanding jobs that not many people care to do and deserve our respect and the people doing them deserve to be paid well.
09/22/09
And don't even get me started on the racist assumptions inherent in hiring a nanny from a specific ethnicity because of their supposed ethnic skill set.
09/22/09
In these tough times I have worked as a personal assistant/cleaning lady. It ain't easy. I didn't get paid very much but it was under the table and the people I worked for paid me daily.
09/21/09
09/22/09
we difineately weren't rich but being in the military meant my mom was away from any help she could have gotten from her family. this was the best option for them. the au pair didn't raise me. she was like a baby sitter or an older sister, since she lived with us.
09/22/09
My family had a nanny that worked for my family for 27 years before she died of lung cancer. I consider her presence in my life one of the greatest gifts my mother ever gave me. My mother was also a deeply loving, involved mother. But, she and my father owned and ran a huge restaurant and the hours were long. They had the financial ability to hire a nanny. I am so very glad they did, because it worked for us as a family and in the end was the best thing for all of us.
Each family and situation is different. People have been paying other people to assist them in raising their children for thousands of years. It is not bizarre. It can be bad, but it can also be great for everyone involved.
09/21/09
09/21/09
Also--guess who some of the WORST employers of domestic workers are?? Diplomats. No joke--and they get away with it with their diplomatic immunity.
09/21/09
09/21/09
Ideally, we would value this work, instead of acting like there's some option besides food being prepared, children being cared for, et cetera.
09/21/09
09/21/09
Knowing my father, he never let that title get to his head. Only his children, friends and wife know his former status. Meh.
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09/21/09
He has a Hispanic nanny.
I guess I should be glad that in the future people won't think I am a nanny since they will be Tibetan, but I still will be confused with gardeners or maids or cooks. :-(
09/22/09
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09/22/09
Clearly there are women whose rights are being trampled over right and left and NYC in particular seems like a hellhole for domestic workers. This is of huge concern and I am glad that Jez pays such close attention to this issue. But those of us who have positive experience with nanny culture just want to get our voices heard that hiring a nanny or being a nanny or having a nanny can be a wonderful, amazingly positive thing for the parties involved and that the entire enterprise should not be dismissed.
09/21/09
09/21/09
Or, maybe it is another point in the caregivers get shafted column, that because of her job Isabel could neither watch her own children nor afford child care that included adult supervision.
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09/21/09
And considering what some of my other friends were starting to get into, for my mom this was the best possible thing that could have happened - I got paid, I could take my younger sister with me to work, and everyone was accounted for after school.
But yes, it is another point - $100 a week was a huge sum to me, but about 20 hours of work each week, it works out to about $5 an hour. But, from what I can recall, she gave me a significant chunk of her salary.
09/21/09
The Pullman company hired African American men for this job in stead of white men because Mr Pullman felt that passengers would feel threatened by the idea of other white people (their peers) seeing them undressed etc. On the other hand, the passengers wouldn't view Black men as peers, and therefore wouldn't feel self- conscious being seen by them when they were unwashed first thing in the morning.
Maybe people like to hire nannies of a different race because they don't feel as judged by them, because in some way having a brown women overhear your fight with your husband doesn't count.
09/21/09
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09/21/09
On the other hand, my sisters (who were a lot more gregarious than I was) loved hanging out with their friends for a couple extra hours until my mom or dad could come get us.
Maybe it's the emphasis now on having actual structured time after school? Kids today seem not to hang out and play they did when I was their age *crotchety noises* They always have some kind of practice or after-school activity that means they can't stay there.
09/21/09
eta: I love how old and crotchety I sound. We didn't have none of the 'lectronics!
09/21/09
Then afterward we had to walk home in the driving snow, uphill.
09/21/09
09/21/09
But at the same time, my cousin's (Carribean) nanny has told me some horror stories. She thinks "some of these white ladies are scared of their children" and I think she may be right.
09/21/09
Her mom said, "I appreciate that you are expressing your anger artistically."
That's when I quit.
09/21/09
Additionally, I have said many times that stripping would likely be less degrading than my last job as a server. Made me laugh that someone else thinks the same way. May have to look into this a little more seriously.
09/21/09
This was about six years ago, so I'm sure she's sitting at home, reading this article and going "Oh I was SO ahead of the curve!"