For many people, the daily work routine involves getting up in the morning and commuting to a 9-to-5 job in an office. But for Diane King, the day begins by walking into the kitchen to get breakfast ready for 11-year-old Kyle, 8-year-old Erin and 6-year-old Colin.
The three children are not her own, but at times it seems they are. King is the live-in nanny for the Henry family in Barrington and has been for the last 8 1/2 years. “It’s quite rare to stay with a family that long,” said King, 52. “We’re truly a family, of course, by now.”
King said her job has been an enjoyable one, but working as a nanny presents its own set of problems. Take, for example, the feeling of isolation because of a lack of adult interaction. There’s also a strong desire to communicate with other nannies to exchange notes on child care.
Those were two things that led King and a handful of other suburban nannies to start the Nanny Circle, a support group for nannies that meets the third Wednesday of each month at Forest Hospital in Des Plaines.
The group’s goals are to provide networking opportunities, build on job skills, offer emotional support for nannies and have a social atmosphere where nannies can discuss their jobs and child-care issues.
“We help each other,” King said. “If there’s a nanny having a problem or who needs to know how to handle a particular situation, we put our heads together.”
King said the meetings are “partial business (and) educational talks, and we also draw from our own resources.”
The nannies range in age from 20s through 50s; about 60 percent are live-ins like King. Members have at least one year of experience.
The group was formed in June 1991 after King and several other nannies realized that they had a lot of information to share.
Currently, the group has about 25 members who come from a large geographic area. “We go as far north as Gurnee and south to River Forest,” King said. “Many are located on the North Shore, and some work in Chicago.”
Nannies have a lot more in common than just sharing a love of children, King said. Their financial situations are similar; most nannies make about $350 per week plus room and board, use of a car and health benefits.
Most agree they would love to dispel the myth that a nanny and a baby-sitter are the same.
“Where did the name baby-sitter ever come from?” asked co-founder Mary Lou Benigno, a 55-year-old Des Plaines resident who cares for five children in two households.
One of the group’s goals is to educate the public on what a nanny actually does. A nanny is more like a mother and a teacher rolled into one, according to Benigno, whose charges live in Evanston and Highland Park. “Nannies have a solid background in child development and an understanding that children learn through play,” she said.
Their duties include coming up with creative and educational activities appropriate to a child’s age level, working on self-help skills like tying shoes and zipping jackets, preparing healthy meals, laundering children’s clothing, overseeing the household, and making sure children remain safe throughout the day.
“A nanny who is really worth her salt understands that you simply give children opportunities to explore within a safe environment and a lot of learning takes place,” Benigno said. “She thinks of the emotional, social, intellectual and physical growth of that child, and she is in concert with the family she is working with.”
The value of having a support group where nannies can talk about their jobs and share information is immeasurable, the nannies say. “The major benefit is the sharing and brainstorming at meetings,” Benigno said.
Additionally, speakers are brought in. An attorney has discussed negotiating contracts and the rights of a nanny, an investment counselor has spoken on personal investing and, in the fall, a medical professional will teach the nannies infant CPR.
“We continually keep abreast of what is going on in early childhood,” King said.
King’s boss, pediatrician Dr. Mary Collins, recently met with the group to talk about discipline. Collins and her husband, Brian Henry, fully supported King’s decision to start the group. “I thought it was great and it was something very necessary,” she said.
The nannies said one of the most important jobs for a nanny is to communicate with the parents about duties and responsibilities. The Nanny Circle also strives to educate parents about the job and pay scale of a nanny and to improve the professional image of the nanny.
“That’s my soapbox,” said M.J. Fanning, a 33-year-old nanny and resident of Chicago. “There really seems to be this idea that anyone can be a nanny, and that’s not the case at all.”
Fanning said she tries to educate everyone she meets about her part-time position caring for two children in Park Ridge. “The definition I’ve come up with is that a nanny is responsible for the physical, emotional, social and cognitive growth of her charges,” she said. “I really try to work to let people know that there is a major difference between nannies and baby-sitters. We are not interchangeable.”
A lot of nannies, for example, have taken classes in early childhood education, and some even have college degrees in that area. The Nanny Circle even has a scholarship program for nannies who can’t afford to attend job-related conferences or seminars.
Fanning has a bachelor of arts degree in elementary education and attended Oakton Community College’s one-year nanny program (it hasn’t been offered since the early ’90s because enrollment was so low). She even has business cards with the title CPN, or Certified Professional Nanny, which is awarded to graduates of certified nanny programs. Of the 23 nannies in the group, seven have the title of CPN.
According to Florence Munuz, professor of early childhood education at Oakton Community College in Des Plaines, it is important for nannies to have a support group because their profession can be isolating.
“It’s not like working with children in a center where you have support from other teachers and helpers,” she explained. “They are by themselves with the children.”
In support groups like the Nanny Circle, nannies “not only get emotional support but they also get ideas, new things to try and help with problems that they’re having,” she said.
For King, having the support of other nannies has truly been a blessing and has helped address feelings of isolation. “You don’t work with other employees,” King said. “You are by yourself in someone’s home, and sometimes the need for simple adult conversation is quite important,” so nannies call each other and, if they’re in the same area, arrange play groups for their charges.
The Nanny Circle hopes to reach more nannies and possibly expand into local chapters.
“It’s important that we seek out each other,” King said. “We all can benefit because of this.”
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For more information on the Nanny Circle, call Diane King at 847-304-1451.
