Giving Mary Poppins a Run for Her Money

They wear sneakers and jeans to work, “do meetings” over crayons and finger-paint, and count hugs and time at the park among their employee benefits.

But don’t be fooled by the apparently laid-back pace of their work: 31-year-old Sheila Sarchioni Farrell of Arlington, Mass., and 27-year-old Julie Piava of Los Angeles consider themselves professionals. And they have the education, the commitment to their field and even the pay to prove it.

Farrell and Piava are nannies. But while the nation’s child-care work force is suffering from sinking pay and shrinking standards, the trend at this admittedly elite level of child care is in the opposite direction. According to those who match “in-home” child-care workers with families, a growing number of nannies are well-educated, well-paid workers who look more and more like the high-energy parents who employ them.

And these days, nannies like Farrell and Piava command more than thanks and respect from their well-heeled employers. In markets like Boston and Los Angeles, where the two work, nannies with college degrees and anything more than good baby-sitting references touch off bidding wars.

Placement specialists at nanny agencies in the two cities acknowledge that their affluent clients have high standards. They increasingly demand college degrees, excellent English, some full-time experience in child care and unblemished legal and driving records. Beyond that, they want someone who can help with homework, model good nutrition, plan trips to the museum and maybe teach children a second language.

But in return they are willing to ante up a place to live, health insurance, paid vacation and sick leave, use of a car and salaries that start around $25,000 and range up to $40,000 and $50,000 a year.

The result is that women like Farrell, who has a master’s degree in education, and Piava, who graduated from UC Davis with a degree in rhetoric and communications, are increasingly drawn to work that a decade ago was more likely to attract homemakers with grown children and high-school graduates from the heartland. Such women continue to populate the ranks of nannies in large numbers. But agencies say that they are giving way to larger numbers of women--and a few men--with college educations and professional ambitions.

Today, says Rebekah Zincavage of Boston Nannies, at least half of the nannies she places with families have college degrees, and another 20% at least have a couple of years of college. A substantial handful, like Farrell, have advanced degrees in specialties ranging from education or nursing to music or design.

Professionals With High Expectations

And, to the occasional surprise of busy mothers, these new nannies do not do windows. “They don’t want to be treated like hired help . . . ,” said Zincavage, who was a nanny for several years before joining the placement firm that once helped her find work. “Definitely, they want the respect and recognition that they’re spending 50 to 60 hours a week with the kids, that it is a profession for them and that they do it well.”

In Boston and Los Angeles, among other hot markets, nannies have a choice of professional families, celebrity parents and well-paid dual-earner couples. “There’s never enough” to meet the demand of clients in Los Angeles, said Claudia Kahn, founder of Santa Monica’s The Help Company.

Kahn said she often travels to college campuses and talks to child-development and elementary education professors in her search for qualified applicants. And her company and other nanny agencies recruit heavily on the Internet, a medium that they say has opened the doors to colleges and attracted a better-educated, more sophisticated group of candidates.

For both Farrell and Piava, the current competition has brought salaries that hover above $25,000--competitive with the average pay for a public-school teacher in the early years of a career. For Farrell, who has cared for 2-year-old Chardon for three-quarters of the child’s life, it was a way to use her teaching skills on one child and still make a good living.

Piava said the most rewarding part of her six-year nanny career springs directly from her college work. In five years overseeing two school-age children in San Francisco, she saw herself as a teacher of communications, helping them use language to resolve their conflicts and express their needs. The first time her 8-year-old charge mustered the courage to ask a librarian for help, Piava said, “was so rewarding I nearly cried.”

But in addition to her teaching role, Piava, who is currently interviewing for a position in Los Angeles, saw herself as a household manager. On days that she was not taking the kids to the library, pool or amusement park, she probably was surfing the Internet to find a good summer camp program or a great deal on the family’s ski vacation.

“It’s just real life. And a real living!” Piava said. “I definitely feel like a professional. I’m really experienced and above being capable. . . . The salaries are right up there with people the same age in corporate jobs. . . . I don’t think people have caught on to this.”

But if nanny candidates increasingly have to come with strong credentials, that goes double for male nannies, who are sometimes called “mannies.” Because employers do not automatically see men in these positions, said Zincavage of Boston Nannies, “men have got to be stellar, the best of the best,” with resumes that include college and perhaps experience as a teacher or camp counselor. Although their numbers are growing, they remain a tiny fraction of those placed by agencies.

Whether the nanny is highly qualified or not, most Americans see in-home care by someone other than a parent or relative as a luxury beyond their means.

Agencies Play Pivotal Role

According to Sandra Hofferth of the University of Michigan, only 3% of American children in paid nonparental care had an “in-home” caregiver. The average cost for such caregivers--who range from recent immigrants working under the table to foreign au pairs to the most highly trained baby nurses--was only about $3 per hour in 1995. But that cost was well above every other arrangement, according to a recent Education Department survey.

Nannies who work through agencies occupy a top niche. The agencies screen candidates, conduct extensive background checks--often using private investigators--and match nannies and families whose needs and circumstances mesh. Frequently they help draw up a contract that outlines each party’s expectations and commits a nanny to a minimum stay with a family. Their services can cost a family more than $2,500.

Because such “in-home caregivers” represent only a small part of the child-care market, the effects of their care on children--or how it compares with other forms of care--have never been systematically studied.

“You often hear that nannies are for the privileged few, and that’s true,” said Mary Clurman, editor and publisher of Nanny News.

But those investments, added Clurman, buy an upper-class working mother a huge luxury: a companion for her children who looks like her in terms of education and social values, and who has time to Rollerblade to the park, read a story and play in the sandbox.

* For More Child Care Information:

* An extensive list of child care resources and the complete Caring for Our Children series are available on The Times’ web site:

https://latimes.com/caring

* Nanny News is a national publication for nannies as well as employers:

Nanny News Inc., P.O. Box 965, Cottonwood, AZ 86326, 1-800-634-6266

* NaniNet provides information on finding and interviewing a nanny as well as other resources:

703-404-8964

https://www.nannynetwork.com

Compiled by MALOY MOORE / Los Angeles Times

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Hiring a Nanny? A Tip Sheet

* Make a list of the duties the nanny will perform

* Determine if the nanny needs to own a car

* Check previous work references and personal references

* Have all parties involved sign a work agreement

* Ask questions about:

- Previous experiences with children

- How specific examples of difficult behavior would be addressed

- How emergency situations would be handled; knowledge of CPR and first aid

- How the daily routine will be structured

Compiled by MALOY MOORE / Los Angeles Times