Hiring a nanny: The limits of private solutions to public problems

Dual-career couples in urban areas commonly rely upon nannies or housekeepe rs to allow them to flexibly combine work and family Lives. Highly personal ized services allow parents to manage competing demands. Such forms of chil d care also contain their own tensions and dilemmas, though, in part becaus e they are based on profound social inequality between parents and caregive rs. Based on 155 in-depth, tape-recorded interviews with parents and caregi vers in the New York and Los Angeles metropolitan areas, dilemmas arising b etween even parents with egalitarian ideologies and caregivers are analyzed . One dilemma concerns the parents' authority over the caregiver. Parents m ay want to let the caregiver exercise her own authority and judgment; yet, to the extent that there are class differences between caregivers and paren ts, there are likely to also be different definitions of quality child care . The second dilemma arises from parents' and caregivers' efforts to mainta in some social distance while still wanting commitments that transcend empl oyment obligations. Private forms of child care solve some problems but hav e limits that must be considered in assessing social policy options.