A nanny story

I came across an article titled The Best Nanny Money Can Buy. The article mentioned a highly paid nanny, Muneton, whose salary is $180,000 a year (or $15,000/month). While this is an anomaly and the majority of nannies in the US do not earn anywhere near this amount, I still find a typical/average nanny salary over there to be pretty decent (not that I know what costs of living there are like). $12-$15 per hour, or $1200-$1700 per month, and the nannies don't usually work a 40-hour week. It's usually much less, maybe 20-30 hours per week. I'm interested to find out the different childcare systems in other countries, but I haven't actually done much research.

You can see where I'm coming from, wouldn't you? I'm thinking of the recent RM700/month/job ruckus last week. Of course, the type of employee and level of education for both cases are different, but it's still something to ponder upon. If a nanny in Malaysia (not live-in) can command a salary of RM1200-RM1700, would there be more local employees, even degree holders, who would be interested to become a 'professional' nanny? Would there be many parents who can afford to and would be willing to pay this kind of salary for a nanny?

The comments section are interesting too. I'd like to share some (that I've managed to read, there's too many of them) here:

From the 'why-have-children-when-you-can't-take-care-of-them-yourselves' bashing:

I can't help but wonder about people who can afford to hire a full-time nanny for $100,000 or more. Clearly they have so much money that they could, if they truly wanted to, rearrange their schedules in order to spend more time with their children. Are children some sort of accessory for them? Or are they part of their strategy to further climb the social ladder? I'm not sure why people have kids and then spend so little time with them; certainly their reasons are very different than my own.

To a mother defending why she's hiring a nanny:

I have two children, a full time job and a nanny we love. She is kind, caring and part of our family, not an accessory. We think of her when we have celebrations and joy to share and she is there for us in times of trouble. I love my children but I also love being a professional working woman. I am happier to have a use beyond my home and I am a better parent for that. Having a loving nanny around makes me a better parents because I am not running around doing errands on weekends or at the end of the day but instead, I am playing with my kids. And she has made both my kids fluent in another language besides English. We have never treated her as an employee but instead, have treated her with the same courtesy we treat our kids' teachers because she is like one, and with a lot of love.

For those of you who say why have children when you can't raise them? I say: why tie women up to their procreative role only when we are smart and have so much to contribute to society besides bringing forth children? I know many friends of mine who decided to stay home and once the kids are out of the house in school full-time (starts in kindergarten) find themselves with nothing (useful) to do besides cooking and cleaning. They have lost their work skills and it's too late or too expensive to acquire new ones. Makes for a lot of unhappy women out there.

To a comment on SAHMs being undervalued:

Here's what I don't undertand. If this nanny was actually just a woman who married man, quit her job, and took care of her kids (really took care of her kids, like the nanny does) full time, so many people would say she was being subservient, not living up to her potential, not contributing to the economy, bla bla. But because this nanny makes a salary to essentially be a mother to someone else's children, she's an entrepreneur? How come when you mother your own children it's often considered wasted potential, but when you mother someone else's children, it's a "career"? The only difference I can see is that the full-time mother is dependent on a man, and this nanny has some measure of financial independence, and the nanny can transfer her skills among diff families, whereas the full-time mother is really dependent on the health of her marriage to keep that arrangement going.