Grant Proposal for Nanny Subculture Study
Alyssa DiTota
Prof. Dalton
WFSS
12th November 2019
Section One
I am no stranger to the world of childcare. I spent almost two years completely submerged in the world of nannying in New York City. When I say submerged, I mean it quite literally. With long hours and not much time for any personal endeavors, I found my whole world begin to revolve around the family I was employed by. While it may seem bizarre to those who aren’t aware of the norms that come with nannying, the typical workday is commonly upwards of 10 hours. Personally, I was expected to arrive in the Upper East Side of Manhattan at the ripe hour of 8 am and I didn’t leave for the day until 6:45. This schedule left me with just enough time to go home, eat, and prepare for the next day of cleaning and cooking for a family that treated me more like a belonging than a human being. Now, this is not to say all families treat their employees this way, but, in my experience, and the experiences of the nannies I have met, they have been treated similarly at least once in their careers.
Due to my past experience, I hold a biased view of work conditions in the nanny community. I stand by the notion that nannying is a tremendously underappreciated and under protected career. Nannies are not met with the proper amount of respect they deserve for selflessly raising children who do not belong to them, and in some cases even being underpaid for their time and effort. This is why I would like to subtly get an opinion from nannies at my field site to see if they feel the same way I do. I do not want to lead the conversation into a negative tone, but rather, I will appear unbiased and wait to see if these opinions come up naturally and how they compare to my own.
The fact that I have been a nanny in the past will prove to be a privilege when talking with possible interviewees. If I can relate to them, having been a part of the field, they might feel more comfortable divulging information to me. Age might prove an issue and I predict I will have to convince those I speak to of my experience nannying. They might notice my race and my age and assume that I did not do any cleaning or that I didn’t work long hours. Unfortunately, in my time as a nanny, I was the only person with my background, age and race (that I knew of) that worked long hours and was responsible for all of the housekeeping and cooking that I was. If I can convince those I speak to that I truly do understand the struggles of the job, then I can achieve an open and safe space for sharing, without pushing my opinions in a way that will control the conversation.
Section Two
Children’s parks are all over New York City, within every neighborhood and every borough there are countless caged in universes containing wild little people screaming and running around like it’s the last day on Earth. Most people, who do not associate themselves with these little creatures, will just walk by, barely hearing the laughter and screams coming from within. These people are not aware that if they just unlatched that gate and took a few steps inside, they’d enter an alternate dimension that can only exist within. Once inside, there is mass chaos in every corner. Groups of children submerged in games and imaginary stories that bring them to complete hysteria. With so much intense emotion and wild energy, these children are hardly safe unsupervised. You never know when a game of Superman and the jokers will turn into a four-year-old being jumped by a group of barely walking toddlers who let the game get to their heads. Adult mediators are necessary at all times. Amongst the chaos it may be hard to spot them, but each one of these children has a keeper. They stand in the shadows, arms folded, lips pursed, keeping an ever-careful eye on their miniature counterpart. They’re stanced, ready for a scraped knee, a tantrum, a spilled ice-cream cone, any earth-shattering issue that will inevitably occur. These masters of the wee ones are commonly known as the “nanny.”
Responsibilities of these workers vary but often include cleaning and cooking for the entire family, doing homework afterschool, shipping kids to and from playdates, doctors appointments, wake up time, bed time, bath time, play time, tantrum time, go to the library because mommy wants you to get out of the house time, dragging said child out of the door because they don’t want to go to the library time, etc. A nanny is in charge of their own life and the lives of whatever family they work for. Without the nanny, in many working middle to upper class families in NYC, there would be no possibility for structure. The nanny’s job is a complete service and requires extreme dedication of heart. Unfortunately, many nannies are not treated accordingly, financially, and in typical day to day treatment. According to an article written by Erica Pearson for nydailynews.com, “Nearly a quarter of domestic workers make less than their state minimum wage, and 25% of the live-in nannies and housekeepers said work leaves them with less than five hours of sleep a night” (Pearson). I spoke to a nanny, whose name I will exempt privacy purposes, is a live-in nanny. She got the job through an ad while she was living in Russia. The family offered to provide her a home to sleep in, 500 dollars a week and would fly her to New York City to work for them. While this seems like a dream, the reality is not quite so. She came to NYC and found herself sleeping in a bunk bed with her 7-year old charge while working from 8 am to 8 pm six days a week. This translates to her making about 7 dollars an hour, which is much lower than minimum wage in NYC which lies at 15 dollars an hour. When I mentioned this to her, she said “I know it is not much, but they give me a place to stay and say that makes up for it. But I wasn’t aware that I would be sharing a room and working so much.”
There should be laws in place that protect nannies and hold parents up to certain standards that would ensure they treat their employees like employees. I want to focus on the treatment of nannies by their charges and the parents. I want to know where the job is rewarding and where it is not. Are they treated with respect? Do they feel appreciated?
The behavior I have observed from many parents shows that they could use more pressure to treat their house employees fairly. If they expect their nanny to treat their children like family, they should treat their nanny like family as well. I have heard parents complain about their nannies using cell phones at the park instead of dedicating every ounce of their attention on the child. In fact, at the restaurant I work in, I overheard a conversation in which a woman said “Well, we were thinking about a nanny, but I can’t stand seeing all of these clueless women using their phones while pushing a stroller.” In the same breath I could imagine that parent pushing little Jimmy on the swing while gossiping with a friend on the phone. But if a nanny calls their cousin who is in a different country and time zone, then they are neglectful. Nannies should not be responsible for behaving in any way a parent would not behave.
Child rearing is very difficult when it is your own children, imagine how much love you have to give to work tirelessly for a family that is not really yours. In my time as a nanny I befriended a woman named Lydia, who would always say “I love the kids, no matter how hard it is, you have to love them.” I would like to carry out this research on the nanny subculture because it is filled with rich relationships between caregivers and children, but it is also highly flawed, and I would love the opportunity to learn about and shed light on these issues.
Works Cited
Pearson, Erica. “NY Daily News – We Are Currently Unavailable In Your Region”. Nydailynews.Com, 2019, https://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/nannies-underpaid-overworked-survey-article- 1.1209180. Accessed 11 Nov 2019.
Lydia, In-person conversation, November 2018.
