Nanny Scarcity Has Parents Scrambling to Make Job Worth It

You can stamp your feet if you want. You can cry, sulk, even hold your breath until you turn blue. It won’t help.

There is a nanny shortage afoot, and no amount of parental petulance will ensure that you can hire a nursemaid for your children.

“We can’t possibly fill the demand,” said Cathie Robertson, president of the International Nanny Assn. and a nanny-training instructor at Grossmont Community College near San Diego.

For each trained nanny, 25 to 250 families want one, said Robertson, whose group fields 15 queries daily from parents seeking more than a sitter or day care. “People are more willing to pay for excellent child care,” she said.

Terri Eurich, founder of the National Academy of Nannies Inc. in Denver, recently placed one graduate with a Connecticut family that pays $1,400 monthly, plus room and board. Plus major medical coverage. Plus vacation provisions. Plus travel opportunities. “Those jobs are out there,” Eurich said.

Nationally, average pay ranges from $200 to $300 weekly for trained, live-in nannies hired by couples who, between the two of them, earn at least $80,000 yearly, said Donna Dixon, an associate dean at the Moraine Park Technical College in Fond du Lac, Wis.

Nanny educators and placement-agency operators are hardly surprised by the dearth of trained nannies. More than 3.2 million mothers work outside their homes. The U.S. Labor Department predicts that by 1995, 80% of women ages 22 to 44 will work outside the home, representing almost 15 million preschoolers.

“There are lots of babies. There are older, wealthier, dual-income people having babies,” said Eric Miller, editor of Research Alert, a Long Island magazine devoted to spotting and analyzing trends.

“Yuppies, as they’ve aged, buy service almost more than anything else. They don’t like the paltry child care available. It’s a recipe for a nanny,” Miller said.

Susan Elsea, a suburban Detroit sales executive for American Express, considered a day-care center when she was pregnant. She envisioned wondering: “Are her diapers changed? Is she by herself in a corner?” By the time Carolyn was born seven months ago, she had decided to hire a nanny.

“Day care--absolutely not. I just will not take her out of the house on those cold, blustery mornings. I wanted her here,” she said. Fortunately, she said, she earns enough to pay for it.

Elsea used an agency rather than a classified ad to find her nanny. “The finder’s fee is well worth it. The $1,000 was a drop in the bucket. Time is money. We couldn’t have come up with her on our own,” she said.

Agencies and schools, private and public, stress that nannies must be trained. A textbook is being written now for the field, and groups like the International Nanny Assn. are pushing standardized courses.

Training varies from 100-hour courses to two-year college associate degrees, but experts agree that nannies must know nutrition, such child-care basics as the babies’ switch to solid foods, psychological and physical development, safety, telephone and table etiquette, and how to handle emergencies.

Robertson said there are at least 68 nanny programs at community colleges, like hers, and 20 of them are just a year old. There are at least 15 private schools like Eurich’s.

At least 75,000 nannies have been placed in homes nationwide by schools or agencies, not including illegal aliens or nannies without any classroom or practical experience, Robertson said.

“I would insist on training, but some families get so desperate that they don’t,” said Dixon, whose state school has a one-year program and also offers an associate’s degree.

Linda Hice-Guastella quit law school to open her Nanny Network Inc. placement agency four years ago. Her applicant screening includes reference and police checks.

“We’ve come up with drunk driving and disorderly conduct, but nothing more serious. You have to screen,” she said.