Six Parenting Accounts You Need to Follow
Working as a nanny for nearly twelve years, I’ve seen my fair share of parenting styles implemented in the families I’ve supported. Many of these approaches felt both sensible and foreign to me, based on my own upbringing and the cultural norms of black families in this country. Gentle parenting, conscious parenting, intentional parenting and even respectful parenting sounded like great concepts, but were often represented by higher earning, lower stress households with time and resources at their disposal. I wondered: how accessible are these parenting styles to ALL types of parents?
The reality of modern day Nanny Life
Reading the headline of the Insider article about nannies of color, I expected to be seen and validated in a fresh way by a major publication. In some ways, I did see a more realistic and balanced representation of the industry, but I didn’t exactly see myself, and that was disappointing.
The Inevitable, Perpetual Evolution of A Long Term Nanny Position
In Western society, traditional careers tend to have an established trajectory. As you gain more experience, you become eligible for a new job title, description and salary range. If you don’t take the new title, your duties and responsibilities can remain the same for years. This isn’t the case in the nanny industry.
The Paradox of Proxy Parenting
For years, adequately explaining my profession felt impossible, so I stopped trying. Whenever someone seemed confused by my profession, I would say, “ Just consider me a proxy parent.” In many ways this classification made the most sense, but in others it seemed like a dangerous comparison of apples to oranges.