Nursery World - A good deal

More options are opening in childcare today, so why be a nanny? Helen Kewley hears from some who've weighed it up. Compared with other people who want to work with children, do nannies get a good deal? Ioften think about this when I look at the range of opportunities open to them today. The first nannies I ever met in the 1980s were a group of bright, enthusiastic young women, most of whom had come down to London from the north of England to live-in jobs. Some of them were so poorly paid that they did not even earn enough to pay national insurance or income tax. Most of the nannies took on extra housework if the children they cared for went to school. They all shared the attitude that, in a period of recession, they were lucky to have a job doing something they enjoyed.

Compared with other people who want to work with children, do nannies get a good deal? Ioften think about this when I look at the range of opportunities open to them today. The first nannies I ever met in the 1980s were a group of bright, enthusiastic young women, most of whom had come down to London from the north of England to live-in jobs. Some of them were so poorly paid that they did not even earn enough to pay national insurance or income tax. Most of the nannies took on extra housework if the children they cared for went to school. They all shared the attitude that, in a period of recession, they were lucky to have a job doing something they enjoyed.

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