Saturday

Worthy Rant

RANT-1
I am afraid I will be seeing a lot more "bad nannies" soon!! I have interviewed for many jobs lately watching 2-3 small children (infants or preschoolers) with the offered rate of $350 a week for 50-60 hours. The starting rate at fast food around here is $9.50 an hour. The quality daycares cost that much or more. I hate that anyone would treat a child negatively no matter what and would not forgive that nanny, but I do not forgive that parent who thought their child is worth less than their lunch.

16 comments:

Just My Two Cents Just Now said...

Whenever I see an ad which offers low pay for Nanny care, I always shudder. I imagine what type of person would apply for such a job.

I wish parents would realize that by offering such low pay, they are putting their child in danger.

It's understandable to want to get the best deal in life....but one area you should NEVER do this is w/your precious child!!!!!!!!!

Bethany said...

Ok so there is never an excuse to mistreat a child, but I understand OP's point.

Many parents don't realize that by pricing so low they are mostly attracting people just looking to make a quick, buck and not someone with the background and knowledge to care for a child.

MissMannah said...

"The starting rate at fast food around here is $9.50 an hour."

Holy cow, where the heck do you live? Here, fast food workers make $7.25-$8 starting out and it is not at all uncommon to find nannies making $350 a week for 50+ hours. I'm not saying it is right, I absolutely think the wages need to be higher because they deserve it.

Bethany said...

I'm actually surprised they offered $350 most adds around my area offer $150-$250 for 50+ hours.

At least offer minimum wage.

Penny said...

OP I'm noticing this too lately and it's sad! I really feel people are being completely unreasonable when it comes to pay. They want a personal assistant, cleaning lady, nanny oh and care for multiples yet pay them nothing! First of all people need to understand if you want to hire a NANNY keep in mind she is not there to be anything more than just that a NANNY! It's sad, disgusting and ridiculious and they are only hurting themselves in the long run! I truly find it shocking nobody wants to pay fairly and reasonably anymore, I guess their wallets are more important than understanding that QUALITY childcare comes with a price. Especially for experience, you want a great nanny don't low ball her or insult her experience with a crappy pay check!

CrazyTimes said...

That's crazy! My Nanny friend has decided to quit her job and work at McDonalds!! She said the pay is better and they offer full health/dental/vision benefits :-o
We live in Portland Oregon.

nuttynanny said...

Everyone wants a nanny, but not everyone can afford one. Yes, it is a wonderful luxury, but if you can't even afford minimum wage, then you need to look into other childcare options. The less I get paid, the less I put into the job. It sounds bad, but for minimum wage, I am going to do the bare minimum to skate by. Sure, I'll keep the kids safe and fed, but you can forget about weekly themes, fun outings, volunteering at their schools, cooking their meals from scratch, having friends over to play, cleaning up around the house, etc. When I am paid well, I take EXCELLENT care of the entire family. This is something, I tell perspective parents right up front. If you want your kid to watch tv all day and eat a steady diet of chicken nuggets and Cup of Noodles, then yes, I will sit on your couch all week for $200.00.

♥ Amy Darling ♥ said...

Nutty Nanny:

I am totally w/you on this. I do the same thing. It's sad, but true. I hope some parents see what you wrote and think twice about paying their Nannies a lower rate.

Penny:

Where do you live? That is peanuts.

Penny said...

To nutty nanny- I'd rather not say where I live incase my employers get wind of this site. But I can say it's true what goes on where I live. I've noticed like someone else said earlier on this post, people want the luxury of private in home daycare from a nanny but want to pay their nanny $200 a week, 5 days a week at 40-50 (also wanting "flexibility" which is a fancy word for I want my nanny to work nights, weekends, overnights, and travel,) plus be a housekeeper, personal assistant, chef, laundry lady all the while taking care of a child/children 10+ hours a day. Parents need to understand you can't get something exceptional for nothing quality comes at a price and hardworking great nannies are worth it!

nycmom said...

I would be truly curious to meet one of these nannies who take these ridiculously low paying jobs. Who are they? New immigrants? Even so, they must meet other nannies quickly and learn how ridiculous their pay is. Why stay?

I say this because I have never even interviewed someone willing to consider such a ridiculous wage. The lowest I've ever found is a high school student, who doesn't drive, for $10/hour.

Can't Believe It said...

I've seen several ads recently that quite literally state that their primary goal with the nanny they hire is to get a good deal. This above ALL other qualifications. I couldn't believe someone would be so blaze about the quality of care their children are receiving.

♥ Amy Darling ♥ said...

I wonder what it will take to make some of these parents change their minds. I mean, c'mon...what type of parent actually tries to underpay their childcare provider???

nynanny said...

It's going to be a long uphill climb, even after the economy picks up, for nanny salaries to get back to what they once were.

Outrageous.

This is the ONE damn thing Parents should NOT chintz on!

Penny said...

OP I am not sure if you have seen this in your area too, I'm noticing a lot of people wanting to do nanny shares. Now I can understand the reasoning behind this but I personally refuse to work for two separate families. I did it for a while and it never worked out well. I find it hard and stressful enough to keep up with one family and their demands that tacking on a second family with a completely different set of expectations is a lot to take on. It always created a lot of chaos and backstabbing for me. One family would get upset if I worked extra hours (i.e. date nights etc,) or they would not like if one child received more attention on some days for being sick, and they would always make paying me a total pain in the butt. My current employers tried to get me to do that when they hired me and I flat out told them no it creates lots of room for problems. Now for some this works out great but in my experience and some of my nanny friends experience it always ends up littered with problems. People just need to realize you cannot have your cake and eat it too.

DC nanny said...

I took one of those extremely low paying jobs while I was in college. I had a basic idea what the going rate for nannies was, and I knew I was getting screwed monetarily, ($250 a week) but I liked the family (I had babysat for them previously). It was full time during the summer- I basically had no set hours. The mom stayed at home, so I kinda worked most of the time. If I had something I wanted to go out and do, I could, but other than that I was pretty much on all the time. Surprisingly I didn't hate it.
I even worked for them part time once school started again, living above their garage.

Unfortunately it got to a point where I couldn't be making $10 an hour as a nanny to 4 little girls. I asked a question on here about it, and once I told her I needed a raise, she stopped using me.

Honestly, I think most of the people taking those jobs are either undocumented and desperate, or first time nannies.

Tamm said...

It is sad, but I don't see this situation getting better any time soon. It is true that a lot of illegal immigrants get jobs as nannies, and they are willing to work for almost nothing, because it is usually a better deal than their situation before.

While I am very happy that immigrants are getting a change to better their lives here, I still wish there weren't so many greedy Americans here who will take advantage of another human being like that.