Two-in-One Trend Growing in the Domestic Industry
By Ron Cassinelli, New England Domestic News

Multi-tasking is moving into the domestic industry as nannies, whose primary duty is the care of children, and house managers, whose primary duty is to ensure everything and everybody in the household is functioning properly, merge into a new classification - nanny-house managers.

The trend has grown in the last few years, as parents ask their nannies to take on other tasks.

Besides being in charge of child care, some nanny-managers also provide families with day to day upkeep of the house, e.g. - general pick up, emptying the dishwasher, making beds, daily laundry, arranging for everyone’s doctor and dental appointments and haircuts, packing for travel, meal planning, cooking, shopping, helping to coordinate household schedules, keeping an inventory of the household on computer, keeping track of household budgets, and paying bills.

What about the children

Are the children getting short-changed because their nanny has other duties? Not necessarily, considering that many of the clients hiring nanny-managers were performing those other duties themselves. Now when they come home, they can have a meal on the table and spend more quality time with their kids.

In the last three years nanny-managers have been emerging mostly in households where children are in school and there is some time to take on those other duties. And the nanny-managers often have the help of other staff, such as a housekeeper, a cook, or both.

Since this trend started a few years ago, the obvious question is whether the change in the economy has anything to do with this development.

It might. Where two people were doing this before, now nanny-managers are wearing two hats and getting one salary – although it’s a bigger salary.

The salaries differ by geography – anywhere from $25,000 to $65,000 – depending upon the area of the country, their experience and their duties. Job descriptions vary from family to family.

Just the beginning

The nanny-manager is an evolving career. When people started hiring nannies in earnest in this country 20-plus years ago, the nanny was strictly to care for the children and children’s needs. As more and more people entered the field, this job has emerged and evolved.

Women are filling the vast majority of the positions because most nannies have been female, but requests for a “Mr. French” or “Charles in Charge” are increasing as more households request experienced “mannies” – male nannies whose duties often include maintaining the family cars or other tasks not normally done by traditional nannies.

Most households are looking for computer-savvy college graduates to be their nanny-manager. They might live in or live out, but most of those who live in are seeking a separate apartment or suite or reimbursement for their own apartment.

The highest-paying areas are California, especially the San Francisco area, Houston, Chicago, and the northeast, especially New York and Boston.

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