{"id":874,"date":"2012-09-23T03:56:54","date_gmt":"2012-09-23T10:56:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.enannysource.com\/blog\/?p=874"},"modified":"2012-09-23T03:56:54","modified_gmt":"2012-09-23T10:56:54","slug":"the-rise-of-the-male-nanny","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.enannysource.com\/blog\/index.php\/2012\/09\/23\/the-rise-of-the-male-nanny\/","title":{"rendered":"The Rise of the Male Nanny"},"content":{"rendered":"

by\u00a0Michelle LaRowe<\/a>
\nEditor in Chief<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>While the United States media has been following mannies Scott Cartmill and Shaun Sturz on ABC Family\u2019s reality docu-series Beverly Hills Nannies, in Bath, England, the media is following the story of manny Michael Kenny, who is the first male student in the education degree program at Norland College, the world-famous college for nannies.<\/p>\n

If Kenny completes his four year course work successfully, he will be only the second male in the college\u2019s 120 year history to gradate with the Norland Diploma and the prestigious title of Norland Nanny.<\/p>\n

But if anyone objects to working in a female dominated industry, it\u2019s not Michael Kenny.\u00a0 According to The Telegraph<\/a>, he doesn\u2019t mind and neither did the school\u2019s first male graduate, Peter Cummings, who was reported as saying “I don’t see any problem. My careers adviser hinted that it was very female-dominated, but I took no notice. Being male has never been an issue with either of the parents that I’ve been with.”<\/p>\n

So if the men who commit themselves to learning the ins and outs of the nanny world and the parents who hire them don\u2019t seem to mind, why is there a stigma associated with being a private duty childcare specialist if you\u2019re a man?<\/p>\n

Or is there?<\/p>\n

In a recent interview I had with Shaun Sturz of Beverly Hills Nannies and real-life nanny to the stars, I asked him if he had to overcome any stereotypes being a male nanny. His response? \u201cI don\u2019t think so. Are there any?\u00a0 I\u2019ve never met a male nanny before the show.\u00a0 If there are any, I think things are changing and I\u2019m on the forefront of that. People have always asked me to be their nanny, so I\u2019ve never had to overcome any stereotypes.\u201d<\/p>\n

Maybe he\u2019s right.<\/p>\n

A quick Google search of \u201cmale nannies\u201d showed pages and pages of articles featured in both the print pages and online versions of popular parenting and lifestyle magazines and mainstream news outlets. Is this an indication male nannies are becoming more popular? Maybe, maybe not. But if it\u2019s not, the most interesting search results surely are: the number of nanny placement agencies that specialize in placing male nannies.<\/p>\n

In 2006, My Big Buddy<\/a> was founded as the first male nanny agency in London by two Australian nannies who felt that some children would benefit from the care of an energetic male nanny. Other UK based agencies like Mr. Nanny<\/a> and Manny Poppins<\/a> followed suit. And coming in fall 2012, the United States will perhaps get its own first nanny agency exclusively representing male nannies. According to its website www.mannies.com<\/a>, males looking for home-based work can now apply.<\/p>\n

While some parents, agencies, and caregivers may still raise an eyebrow at male nanny candidates, more and more are open to the idea.<\/p>\n

When parents look for a nanny, they look for someone who is the right fit for the family. For some families, especially single mom families and families with boys, having a male role model around the house is extremely important, as viewers saw firsthand with Cindy Margolis, who cut back her nanny\u2019s hours to bring a manny into her home.<\/p>\n

Each family must identify the right nanny for their family. For some families, it may be that a male nanny better meets their family\u2019s needs. For others, maybe not. Regardless of if the caregiver is a male or female, what\u2019s of ultimate importance is that he or she is qualified, dedicated, and committed to doing the job well, and that he or she sends the message to the children in his or her care that they can be whatever they want to be, and that\u2019s okay.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

by\u00a0Michelle LaRowe Editor in Chief While the United States media has been following mannies Scott Cartmill and Shaun Sturz on ABC Family\u2019s reality docu-series Beverly Hills Nannies, in Bath, England, the media is following the story of manny Michael Kenny, … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[85],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-874","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-nannies-in-the-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.enannysource.com\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/874","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.enannysource.com\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.enannysource.com\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.enannysource.com\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.enannysource.com\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=874"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/www.enannysource.com\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/874\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":877,"href":"http:\/\/www.enannysource.com\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/874\/revisions\/877"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.enannysource.com\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=874"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.enannysource.com\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=874"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.enannysource.com\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=874"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}