The hand that rocks the cradel (guardian weekend supplement)

[NannyL]

Did anyone read this article or have any opinions on it?
I ask because im one of the nannies they quote! (name changed obviously!)

i thought it was very one sided and a bit smug. read with an open mind and came away a bit cross. I don't like the idea of having a nanny but if i had to get one [and could afford it] i would hope that the nanny would form a strong bond with my child. The nannies on the whole came across as a bit 'we know better than the mother' to me.

Thanks Jingle

Interesting NannyL that you were quoted. I read it and had a strong feeling that Natasha Walter followed mumsnet. I've heard a few people express the sort of feelings admitted by JingEllBells, or the deliberate choice serial nannies to ensure no deep bonding occurs. The Leach research on childcare choices also seems to reflect this fear.

Are you Dominique, NannyL?

MuminLondon, Natasha Walter has been on MN in the past asking people if she can interview them.

I agree with whoever said it's a lazy article. Lots of shock-horror stories about terrible parents, and then she admits hardly any parents are like that and everyone just does what they have to - including nursery workers, who she's just spent a good few paragraphs lambasting.

Muminlondon, I don't think that choosing a (good) nursery with two or three dedicated adults looking after one's baby rather than a nanny/childminder is quite the same (or as damaging) as deliberately choosing serial short-term nannies, in order to actively prevent one's child getting attached, though. The nursery I used was not the sort with a high turnover of staff and a lot of the staff were mature women in their 40s and 50s, not all 17-year-olds.

Anyway, wanted to come back to this thread to post what dd2 (who is 3) said to me this morning. She'd got into a panic because she'd come into my bedroom (horribly early!) at exactly the same moment that I'd gone to the loo and had panicked because there was no-one there. I calmed her down and explained that I'd never leave her 'home alone', and that if I went to work I'd always leave her with A (the childminder). She said 'Mummy, I love you more than I can say. But I'm not sad when you go to work and I don't sob (??!) because I'm with A, and I love her too'. Says it all really. She clearly knows who her mum is, but she is happy and settled and feels loved by her c/m too.

Just so you know I'm not an evil witch who won't let her children get attached to any other adults...!

JingEllBells, I think you're probably right. I find it a bit weird to deliberately change carer every year, especially for babies and toddlers. I read an article by Rosie whatsername (ex BBC Royal correspondent) where she whinged about having 12 nannies in 7 years and thought 'what a crap employer she must be!'.

Ooh, is she the one who is just sooooooo poor and in debt!? (Welcome to the real world, luv... and thank your lucky stars you don't work in the public sector!)

Rosie Millard, that's the one. Could have provided sufficiently dumb quotes to illustrate Natasha Walter's article.

d'you think Rosie Millard is an MNer? There's a letter from her published in today's Guardian going on about how thrilled she is that her kids love their nanny, honest guv. Apparently they call Rosie by the nanny's name - how simply charming.

yes i saw the letter. a bit odd when she wrote the thing i thought.

wrote which thing? [thicko emoticon]

ah yes sorry i got a bit confused. thought rosie millard wrote the article for a mo. Ignore me!