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Making Work Work with Affordable Childcare — Sacramentality

Parenting is hard. It is the most amazing, rewarding experience I have ever had. But it’s also really hard. My little dudes need their parents to feed them, clean them and take care of every other need in their lives. They also need us to entertain them, read them, play with them. And the messes. […]

via Making Work Work with Affordable Childcare — Sacramentality

Is “Nanny” an abuse word?

 

Matching is the key to making the right placements. A family has to be right for the nanny and a nanny has to be right for the family. It’s believed that nanny is probably one of the most abused words in the English language. For clear understanding of this particular childcare type, I will explain the differences between nanny, housemaid and house-help as they’re used interchangeably in Nigeria today.

WHO IS A NANNY?

A nanny is a childcare specialist whose workplace is family’s private home or a person whose primary and sometimes only function is limited to caring for the children. A nanny is not Maid, a general housekeeper, a laundress nor a family cook. A nanny is there to care for your children, depending on the ages of the kids and the nanny job description.

Families who are seeking quality care for their children, whose first priority will hire a nanny while others will rationalize and find excuses to hire just about anybody. This trend has caused more harm than good in the childcare industry in which The Nigeria nanny, African and western nannies are not left out. That is why one reads in the papers, hears on radio and sees on the Tv stories of people whose children have been abused by caregivers often mistakenly identifies as nannies.

Other words often confused as nanny in Nigeria are the Housemaid and House-help. In either case, at best the job is 50% childcare and often less. When full housekeeping is involved, the position is not a nanny position.

WHO IS A HOUSE-HELP?

According to the English definition; A domestic worker or originally a servant or a home help.

WHO IS A HOUSEMAID?

This is a female domestic worker. Although now usually found only in the most wealthy of households in the Victorian era domestic service. A maid is a full – time or part-time domestic service professional who is generally assigned the responsibility to clean and maintain a certain area or a large or formal home,mutually working under the supervision of a housekeeper or household manager. Either of them explains their focus on domestic works in the family’s home with no focus on caring for the children.

Duties of a maid may include the following;

• Cleaning the interior of the home and the immediate areas outside.
• Kitchen maintenance; dishes, cupboard, pantry etc.
• Laundry.
• Bed making, routine bedding and linen changes etc.

P.S A nanny is not there to care for the parents or make their beds or do their laundry, or scrub their toilets etc. Yes, some nannies agree to add a little something to their job description. Nannies who work with school age children often do much of the shopping and in some cases, some cooking or laundry for the family. However any job that includes full laundry, cooking, housekeeping, bed making for mom and dad etc is not a nanny job.

Thank you for reading, please like, share, comment and email your experiences, stories and ideas on how to make a nanny-difference.

Together we accomplish, nurture, care and spread love.

Nanny Ms. V.