Confusing stories about Goals 2000 and outcome-based education have made the front page of every newspaper in the country. It is a tangled web of "government-nanny" programs that invade the privacy of families and destroys the principle of individual responsibility. This book describes where we are heading under Goals 2000.
When did we lose our right to be lazy, unhealthy, and politically incorrect? Move over Big Brother! An insidious new group has inserted itself into American politics. They are the nannies—not the stroller-pushing set but an invasive band of do-gooders who are subtly and steadily stripping us of our liberties, robbing us of the inalienable right to make our own decisions, and turning America into a nation of children. As you read this, countless busybodies across the nation are rolling up their sleeves to do the work of straightening out your life. Certain Massachusetts towns have banned school-yard tag. San Francisco has passed laws regulating the amount of water you should use in dog bowls. The mayor of New York City has french fries and doughnuts in his sights. In some parts of California, smoking is prohibited . . . outside. The government, under pressure from the nanny minority, is twisting the public’s arm into obedience. Playground police, food fascists, anti-porn crusaders —whether they're legislating morality or wellbeing—nannies are popping up all over America. In the name of health, safety, decency, and—shudder—good intentions, these ever-vigilant politicians and social activists are dictating what we eat, where we smoke, what we watch and read, and whom we marry. Why do bureaucrats think they know what's better for us than we do? And are they selectively legislating in the name of political expediency? For instance, why do we ban mini-motorbikes, responsible for five deaths each year, and not skiing, which accounts for fifty deaths each year? Why is medical marijuana, a substance yet to claim a single life, banned and not aspirin, which accounts for about 7,600 deaths? Exhaustively researched, sharply observed, and refreshingly lucid, Nanny Sate looks at the myriad ways we are turning the United States into a soulless and staid nation—eroding not only our personal freedoms but our national character.
Once considered the preserve of the wealthy, nanny care has grown in response to changes in the labour market, including the rising number of working mothers with young children and increases in non-standard work patterns. This book presents new empirical research about in-home childcare in Australia, the United Kingdom and Canada, three countries where governments are pursuing new ways to support in-home childcare through funding, regulation and migration. The compelling policy story that emerges illustrates the implications of different mechanisms for facilitating in-home childcare - for families and for care workers.
The New Childcare Bible—A Must-Have Whether You Have Occasional Sitters or a Full-Time Nanny Finding the right caregiver can be one of the most life-changing decisions a parent makes. Whether it's a kindly neighbor for the weekday latchkey hours, a teenage babysitter one night a week, or a full-time professional nanny, the right caregiver can enrich a child's world and literally grow her brain. Hire the wrong one, and this person could cause developmental delays and stress for the entire family. In her groundbreaking new book, Secrets of the Nanny Whisperer: A Practical Guide for Finding and Achieving the Gold Standard of Care for Your Child, nationally recognized parenting expert Tammy Gold draws from her extensive background in child developmental psychology, social work, and family therapy to offer the first childcare bible for parents. Knowing the impact caregivers have on children coupled with the unregulated often unknown world of in-home childcare workers, Gold has devoted her professional career, and now this book, to helping parents navigate through this important--and woefully overlooked--process. She arms parents with invaluable tools, tips, and insider secrets to finding the perfect caregiver-family match. Gold's Family Needs Assessment helps parents identify the traits and conditions that are "must-haves," added "pluses," or nonnegotiable "deal breakers." Parents can then use this list of qualities to quickly weed out unqualified candidates. She also details what to ask over the phone and in a face-to-face interview, how to structure a trial run (which she deems essential), and what to spell out in a Nanny-Family Work Agreement--another essential tool included in the book. Readers learn her "Nanny Speak 1-2-3" technique to help clarify and resolve issues with the caregiver in a productive, positive way. In addition to saving hours and energy, Parents will also discover as much about parenting as they will about finding a nanny. Secrets of the Nanny Whisperer is chock-full of parenting gems about children's developmental stages, ways to nurture and stimulate the child, and essential strategies for maintaining harmonious and high-functioning parent-child-caregiver relationships. This book is a must read for parents who want to create a happier, healthier and safer childcare experience for their child.
The Norwood Nanny Chronicles begin . . . When American orphan, Bree, arrives at Norwood College—the elite English training ground of nannies to the world’s rich and powerful—she knows that making it through the first year to land a spot in the coveted certificate program is the key to her future. She also knows she can’t go it alone, bonding quickly with her groupmates: an errant (and broke) nobleman, son of one of England’s oldest families; the ambitious and whip-smart daughter of a self-made immigrant; and the ditzy, husband-hunting daughter of a disgraced playboy aristocrat. What none of them realize is that there is more to Norwood than meets the eye: the school itself may unlock the secrets of Bree’s own shadowy past, and the classmates’ very lives will depend on their ability to work together to meet the dangers ahead.
Available Open Access under CC-BY-NC licence Paying privately for childcare is a growing phenomenon worldwide, a trend mirrored in Sweden despite the prevalence there of publicly funded daycare. This book combines theories of family practices, care and childhood studies with the personal perspectives of nannies, au pairs, parents and children to provide new understandings of what constitutes care in nanny families. The authors investigate the ways in which all the participants experience the caring situation, and expose the possibilities and problems of nanny and au pair care. Their study illuminates the ways in which paid domestic care workers 'do' family and care; in doing so, it contributes to wider political and scientific discussions of inequalities at the global and local level, reproduced in and between families, in the context of rapidly changing welfare states.
As president of Washington's premier nanny placement agency, White House Nannies, Inc., Barbara Kline has spent the last twenty years handpicking and delivering nannies to elected officials, cabinet members, advisers to the President, and the media who report on their every move. In this hilarious account of her life in child care, Kline discloses the mayhem that ensues when these powerful parents find themselves at the mercy of tiny tyrants—and the nannies who offer their only hope of salvation. From finding the "perfect nanny" to firing the "perfect nanny," from refereeing mommy-nanny disputes to keeping mum about family secrets, Kline casts a keen eye on one of the most complicated relationships under the sun: that between extremely busy people and their nannies. Following the major events that launch powerful D.C. parents into parenthood (discovering they're pregnant; hiring a fabulous nanny; giving birth; hiring a second nanny in a pinch when the first one is nanny-napped), this book goes behind closed doors in our nation's capital to reveal the laughter—and, of course, the tears—involved when overworked professionals attempt to raise a child. The Nanny Diaries meets Primary Colors in this delightful ride on the bottle-and-bib-strewn Beltway.
Unique in its intergenerational approach to understanding motherhood in China, this book sets out to study Chinese mothers’ experiences of childrearing, emphasising that gender is not immutable and that motherhood is not isolated from other social domains. The author adopts an historical and sociological design with a case study approach to investigate three living generations of women from 12 families of varied social-economic backgrounds in China. By comparing three aspects of these mothers’ lives – namely the growing-up experiences, mothering experiences and intergenerational transmission between mothers and daughters – this research provides an invaluable opportunity to ‘observe’ how changing structural elements shaped mothers’ varied subjectivities similarly or differently. It also addresses the continuities of the women’s experiences, highlighting the gendered and devalued roles in childcare that existed across three generations, reflecting the complex dynamic relationship between women’s agency and China’s social structures. This is an essential read for researchers, students, professionals and practitioners in the fields of sociology of families, childhood and education, gender studies, motherhood/parenthood studies, narrative studies, social policy and development studies.
Dependent on D.C. raises serious concerns about the future of liberty in America and proves beyond a doubt that the growth of dependence on government in the past seventy years has not been accidental, that its creation has been bipartisan, and that it is accelerating. Twight shows how growing federal power--driven by legislation, validated by Supreme Court decisions, and accelerated by presidential ambition--has eroded the rule of law in our nation, leaving almost no activity that the central government cannot at its discretion regulate, manipulate, or prohibit. Dependent on D.C. shows why Americans have not resistedthis expansion of federal power. In these uncertain times, Dependent on D.C. is the book Americans need to read when thinking about the future of their individual liberty.