South African Child Minder Needed

I believe when you pay for a personal service, you should be allowed to determine how it is delivered and by whom. Childcare is no different. Remember the govt. banging on about parents' choice and all that? This sentiment comes from a professional child carer, who minutes before setting off for a weeks' nanny position (that had been booked well in advance), had the job withdrawn/ cancelled because the new mum, (just home with her C-section), found out from her husband, that the nanny was black. That week... no job....no further contact! All such unpleasantness could be avoided if we were allowed to clearly indicate our preferences. I now have a website that clearly states my ethnicity. I hope the powers that be, do not pull it! still waiting for the first booking since the change

Hope I am not risking further in-depth analysis of the issues arising from a previous request for the same... But I am also looking for a fluent Afrikaans speaking Childminder. I am South African and my husband British. Our daughter is growing up fully bilingual and I have only spoken Afrikaans to her from birth. My husband and the rest of our friends all speak English to her. She has done really well acquiring both languages.
I am to return to work in a few months and in aid of her bilingual language development require a fluent Afrikaans speaking childminder in the Shenley, WD7 9DF, Hertfordshire area. Our daughter will be 3 in December and will start attending a (although very diverse, predominantly English speaking) kindergarten in September and I will be working full-time. I am desperate to maintain her ability to converse with me, her mother, in my own language. I express myself through language and I express myself best through my mother tongue and I would love our daughter to share that experience with me.
I do not wish to offend anyone, and hope I haven't, and I hope I managed to curb my straight-talking SA manner.
If there is a fluent Afrikaans-speaking childminder out there, I would love to hear from you.

OP thank you for posting!

We wondered if we'd all scared you off!

What you have written just now makes far more sense and I think it was just the original wording that had a few people scratching heads!

Thank you!

OP - thank you for coming back on here. I think people are just being overly sensitive. Those who say they would be flamed if they set the requirement for a British CM have missed the blindingly obvious fact that it's pretty darn easy to find a British CM. I would assume finding an Africaans speaking CM would be a damn site more difficult!

My parents native language is a European language, and they speak very little English. However, I don't speak that language at home, as to me it is my 2nd language. If I want my DS to be able to communicate with his grandparents easily, then I would hire someone who is a native speaker of that language - NOT someone who just knows it at the same level I do - that is not a native speaker. This is something I am looking at doing at some point in time. Will you all be flaming ME then?????!!!!!!

'think you need to get real nadia - or live in sa' - becj53

A charming example of British tolerance there.

My guess is that those who show such ignorance and prejudice have probably never set foot in South Africa but enjoy watching the (dare I say... sensationalist) news and reading the (ever so truthful) newspaper...

As a South African living in England for the last 7 years I have come across this kind of judgemental attitude time and time again sadly. Thankfully most people I deal with aren't like this at all though

There is prejudice and racism here in the UK too... it's all over the world sadly... and having a white face as a South African does not make you a racist, as being German does not make you a Nazi.

OP has (or would have) a 6 months old baby, and it will be for a couple of hours only a week. How on earth this can be seen as sheltering her child from British culture I really don't understand!

She probably just want to help baby understand one language first, and clearly (as per her OP) Afrikaans is her home language, so it would make sense to do that first then.

If some of these posters on here were (temporarily/permanently - who knows) living in a non-English speaking country, and you and your dhs were speaking English at home, I'm not convinced you wouldn't prefer the occasional childcare for your 6-month old to be English speaking if you had the choice. It's obviously not going to be the situation forever, so where the comments about schools are coming from, heaven knows.

Must have been quiet on mn to elicit a response like this.
She asked for a cm with a language skill, we leapt on her assuming racism and deep rooted apartheid sympathy.
If a NI woman asked for an Irish speaking nanny would it make her an IRA sympathiser?
odd leaps odd

Agreed. Perhaps in the future more questions should be asked before assumptions are made.

'had she been asking for someone French, doubt it would have caused all this ridiculous fuss '

I agree Fox. The people on here are not very friendly sometimes, and themselves come across as prejudiced at times... so if someone on here asks for a French/French speaking CM they should just 'go back to France'???

How inclusive and tolerant is THAT? Quite rude if you ask me.

bloody ridiculous

had she been asking for someone French, doubt it would have caused all this ridiculous fuss

To be honest I am not surprised the OP has gone away, I didn't take this as at all offensive, she just wants her children to understand SA culture and be in an environment where they could potentially start to speak afrikaans.

Bloody hell, have we scared away this op too??!

There is nothing wrong with wanting to pass on your language and culture to your child, especially when you are living in a different country. I really can't see why people are so upset - clients can narrow down CMs by whatever requirements they want, and this mum is looking for a specific type of CM for her multicultural child.

I presume she specified she would prefer other SA children as then maybe the predominant language in the child minding house would be Afrikaans.

It would be interesting if she came back and told us what she meant even if we frightened her off for good after that.

'bush tea...'

Can we not (it is their first child in a foreign country...) give the poster the benefit of the doubt, and assume she does not realise how inclusive us childminders (no matter our nationality) are trained to be and (mostly) naturally are, towards ALL children?

I certainly did not know the extent of inclusion prior to looking into becoming a childminder (so can see how she doesn't)... I have been amazed by the acceptance and resource available in England.

Plus... race was not mentioned or alluded to... people in South Africa speak a variety of languages more often than not, and ALL colours could just as easily speak Afrikaans.

well I suppose so Wannabe - in the same way that my DH's family learnt English at school because that was the only language that was taught in. Their mother tongue is Shona, but they all speak fluent English (I was once asked if I was the foreign one and my DH the Brit )

but the op wants her child in a south African environment. Even though she is living in this country.

Would it be ok to advertise for a childminder who had only english speaking children? I think not somehow. Therefore it is no less right to advertise for one who has south African children.

I don't think there's anything wrong with advertising for a cm who speaks Afrikaans, what I think is wrong is that the op has also specified that she would like the child to be raised with other south Africans, as opposed to just wanting someone who speaks her child's language.

But why would you be offended because you don't meet the requirements of the OP? I'm really not trying to cause an argument or be nasty in case you take this the wrong way but you don't speak afrikaans (although you're learning key words) and the OP wants an afrikaans speaking childminder, we assume to support her child's bilingualism. That would be like me being offended because a Russian oil company wants a bilingual Russian/English PA. I speak English and some key words in Russian but I couldn't cope in a Russian working environment. I certainly couldn't support a child's bilingualism. I applaud your efforts though and, were I South African and unable to access a South African childminder, you sound like an excellent choice.

Everything else I agree wth you.

And now I have to go pick up from school.

FAQ a vast majority of black south Africans do speak Afrikaans, because until only recently English and Afrikaans were the only two official languages of South Africa, and therefore most black south Africans would be working for white english or Afrikaans speaking employers.

But as a black south african Afrikaans would not be their first language, iyswim.

Obviously things have changed now and South africa has eleven official languages of which English and Afrikaans are just two.

But Afrikaans is spoken as a first language only by white and mixed-race south Africans.

all getting rather messy, isn't it?

is this the right time to offer pop-corn?

sorry should say "wasn't" from the Republic of SA

"I am looking for a Childminder who is afrikaans speaking with south african culture to look after our son (preferably with other south african kids)"

She is clearly asking for a SA minder who is afrikaans speaking.

If I lived close enough to help her I would be offended by this because
a) I worked out this morning 2/3rd of my client base are of South African or Zimbabwean heritage - in fact at one time a year or two ago my entire client base was from Zimbabwe........
b) I am totally open to deeply religious families and have cared for JWs as well as strong CofE and RC types....
c) I am making a real effort to learn key words in Afrikaans
d) I have studied SA history in some detail at uni

According to the OP I wouldn't be "good enough" because I wasn't born in the right country in the first place.....I think what some people are trying to get across (albeit not very politely!) that its just the way the request has been put across. Like the OP isn't prepared to consider someone who isn't from SA. I mean if I was from Zim and spoke Afrikaans - would she reject me because I was from the Republic of SA? I think OP is being shot down because we don't get what she is asking for and why she is asking for it...she may have a very good reason - for example they are only here on a one year job secondment and need their child to be able to reintergrate into SA society on their return.....

And to the person who said "they have chosen to live here" - actually if they are from SA or Zimbabwe - actually they may NOT have chosen to live here. My Zimbabwean clients would much prefer to be at home.....sadly some bastard has taken their home and given them no choice but to flee. I hardly think thats grounds to get all "when in Rome" on them do you?......