Monday, July 16, 2012

The Other Mothers


I still feel jealous when Z comes home singing a song I don't know that she learned at school or when I first pick up G and he smells like his caregiver.

Have you read this essay from yesterday's New York Times Magazine about nannies? The photos and the online interview is heartbreakingly beautiful.

There are lots of quotable passages from the essay, but this stood out to me as I read it over:

No one can dispute the importance of raising a child. Most parents, holding a new baby, face the most monumental work of their life. Perhaps the reason we often deny caregivers the social position and the respect they deserve is that we are uncomfortable with our absence from the particular chair they occupy, many hours of the day, many days of the year.
 
No one will say their child is not worth $X amount that the caregiver is asking, but no one will really volunteer to pay more than they are. And everyone finds a balance between the cost of the care, the kind of the care, the situation to meet their family's needs. But cost remains a big factor I think.
 
I know we are very fortunate to have care for our children that is as outstanding as it is. But sometimes we still grouse about the cost.

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