The New York Times scores the Working Mom versus Nanny race for hours with a child.
Jenny Rosenstrach writes (excerpt):
. . . Ask any full-time working mother and she’ll know what I’m talking about. We sit at our desks, or on the train, or lie awake at night crunching the numbers. No matter how many times I add up the hours my nanny, Devika, spends with Phoebe and her 10-month-old sister, Abby, and compare them to the hours my husband and I spend with them, I am convinced that somehow, this time, we are going to come out on top.
****
Luckily, my children aren’t as mathematical in their dispensing of love and time as I am. Yes, they adore Devika, who is about as patient and caring as they come. But for Phoebe and Abby, love is not a finite quantity; that is, it’s not as if the more they love her, the less they love their parents. For them, there is a seemingly unlimited well to tap; the greater the number of people to love and to love back, the better. You don’t have to have 20 years of formal education to learn that math lesson.
Excellent reminders! Kids are there to have fun, it is the parents who think winning/losing is the end all. Not that kids don’t want to win, they just aren’t beside themselves when it doesn’t work out.
Thanks for the reminder.