INA in the News
Nanny 411
By MELISSA RENTERIA, The Enterprise
Sunday, January 30, 2005
BEAUMONT - Pat Mizell unknowingly had been training for her current profession when she was a young mother raising seven children.
"I got my experience first hand," said Mizell, 68, a professional nanny for more than 20 years.
Mizell, with her warm smile and pleasant demeanor, seems to typify what a nanny should be, but she and those who work with nannies say there is no typical nanny.
"It's such a highly personalized service," said Nancy Carlisle, owner of Professional Nanny Source, a nanny placement agency in Beaumont since 1998.
Like the nannies portrayed in the classic Walt Disney movie, "Mary Poppins," and the new reality television shows, "Supernanny," and "Nanny 911," professional nannies provide much-needed help to the families who employ them. However, the similarities pretty much end there.
The fictional Mary Poppins went against the wishes of her employer, Mr. Banks, when it came to the playtime activities of his children, Jane and Michael.
The reality show nannies are called on by parents dealing with bedtime difficulties and temper tantrums to teach them how to handle unruly children and restore order in their homes.
Such disregard of parents' rules is not the norm in most households that employ nannies.
"I'm not about to do that," Mizell said of the way nanny Jo Frost sets up a household schedule and tells parents how to discipline their children on the ABC reality show, "Supernanny."
Families set the rules for television watching, eating times and forms of discipline, Carlisle said.
Families also determine the nanny's work schedule and salary, which usually are based on experience level and job expectations. Such things usually are discussed during an interview.
Nannies can be employed on a permanent, temporary, part-time or on-call basis. Some families want nannies to care for their children after school. Others need them all day while both parents work. A few nannies work on a live-in basis.
"It's not just a babysitting job," Carlisle said.
Most nanny agencies work as a placement service, matching families with nannies that fit their needs.
When going through an agency, parents can specify the age range, gender and experience level they want in a nanny.
The agency has its own criteria for nannies they'll accept as applicants.
Carlisle said she places nannies age 20 to "as long as they want to mess with them." She's placed nannies with years of parenting experience and childcare training as well as young college students with years of baby-sitting experience.
"They all have some background in child development," said Carlisle, who has placed 40 to 50 nannies with Southeast Texas families in the past five years.
Nanny applicants are screened for character and work references and criminal background checks, said Carlisle, who has placed 40 to 50 nannies with Southeast Texas families in the past five years. The families interview applicants and ultimately decide whether to employ a nanny.
Pat Cascio, owner of Morningside Nannies in Houston and board president of the International Nanny Association, said most parents prefer nannies older than 30 and usually want a woman working for them.
"Most families aren't comfortable with a male nanny. That hasn't really caught on," Cascio said by telephone from Houston.
Cascio, who has worked with nannies since 1982, said she has placed two male nannies with families in her 23 years in the business.
Employment rates of nannies are hard to measure, Cascio said, because many families employ nannies without going through an agency and make special payment arrangements with nannies to avoid income taxes.
"A high percentage of nannies are not paid legally. Some people don't want the extra work or hassle of dealing with taxes. They'd rather pay their nannies out-of-pocket," Cascio said.
"It's something we see a lot of in the news," Cascio said, referring to the recent controversy surrounding Bernard Kerik, who withdrew from consideration for the top Homeland Security post over allegations that he illegally employed a nanny with a questionable immigration status.
Another hot topic in the news regarding nannies is the use of nanny cams, hidden cameras that record the daily activities of nannies with the children in their charge.
Most nanny agencies consider nanny cams an invasion of privacy and discourage their use.
"It's OK if they're being used as a supervisory tool and not as a way to catch them doing something wrong," Cascio said, adding that if a family suspects a nanny is mistreating a child, then the nanny should be terminated.
"Why wait to catch them doing something wrong?" she said.
The television nanny Jo Frost, who has more than 20 years experience, is called on to evaluate a family's living situation and set up guidelines for discipline childcare.
While nannies generally do not tell families how to run their households and deal with their children, many nannies, especially those with years of parenting and childcare experience, sometimes are asked by new parents how to handle certain situations.
"When you've been a mommy as long as I have, you've already seen the errors. You've learned the best way to do things and can offer that help when asked," said Mizell, who has worked as a nanny with eight families in Southeast Texas.
She spent four years with the last family that employed her, and soon will start working for another family as nanny to their newborn baby.
Mizell, who likes caring for babies, summed up her love for her job this way: "The kids keep me happy and young."