Mommyish Poll: Would You Hire A Male Babysitter?

This past week, I interviewed some mothers on how they go about choosing a babysitter or nanny for their family, and I absolutely got flooded with all kinds of criteria. Some mothers really looked for education while others would not budge on their age limit. But even though I made no indication of gender in my questions, most mothers inserted their own “she” when describing the qualifications of their ideal sitter. When I asked some of them if gender was a requirement, they quickly backtracked and stuck to a more neutral “they” indicating that they would be open to interviewing a male sitter. But some mothers I spoke to admitted that they couldn’t see beyond the stigma associated with a man interested in caring for children.

Male nannies aren’t exactly a new phenomenon. Britney Spears was the subject of a ton of news coverage when her boys were spotted with her “manny” in 2006. Madonna was also reported to have hired a male nanny and Elle Macpherson was photographed just this past spring on vacation with her male hired help. Yet, a lot of the mothers I spoke to seemed to be hesitant about the idea.

So what about you Mommyish readers? What do you think?


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