Male Nannies, Mannies - what are your views?

[silvers]

Hi there,
My name is Sophy and I work at Gumtree.
We've noticed there's been an increase in the number of mums & dads looking for male nannies on our site and we wanted to know your thoughts on this trend.
Please share your thoughts with us by filling out our quick survey - it won't take long and you'll go into a draw to win an exclusive Gumtree beanbag! Or alternatively, comment on this thread.
Click here to go to the survey.
Thanks and bye for now,
Sophy and The Gumtree Team

i would use a male nanny or childminder
i like the fact that in my sons primary school they have a good mix of male/female teathers

I would consider any candidate on the strength of their manner with my child, their personality, their experience/training and their references. I would certainly not hold their gender to be a deciding, or even contributory factor.

TBH couldn't answer many questions as I wouldn't concioulsy choose a male nanny, but I definatley wouldn't not choose one simply because he was male. I can honestly say that gender would not factor into my choice at all

ditto prufrock & little fish. You questionnaire is set up in such a way as to presume that one factors gender into the choice.

hi dmo

your point is very interesing about male teachers and one i hadn't thought of. thanks for highlighting it.

we've in fact had lots of parents of daughters come back and say they wouldn't consider a male nanny for them; and lots of parents of sons saying it is something they would consider.

Oh this could get interesting. Can we as employers actually make a hiring decision based on gender? Isn't that illegal?

I read an artacle recently saying that more women were opting for male nannies as the thought of having another young female in the house made them feel insecure.

it depends if there are live-in or live-out. you can request a certain gender if the role requires them to live-in.

How will they ever manage to entice boys into Childcare though, people are so much paranoid now about leaving their children with males than they ever were???

my son (who is 10) wants to be a cm like his mum
i would prob encourage him along the lines of childrens nurse etc i think its great

Anyone spot that in the survey, for Nationality it didn't allow an entry for British, or Welsh, or Scottish.

Gender doesn't come into it - A good nanny is a good nanny.

I am activly hoping we can find a male au pair and I would have loved a male nanny. DS went to a male childminder too.

I doubt I would have changed my mind if we had a daughter, but I recognise a large part is that I do want posistive male role models in a wide variety of areas for DS.

I guess if I did have a daughter I would still want her to see men doing caring roles but also want her to have role models of women doing engineering etc!