Off the Books and the Nannies are in Charge!

  I can't believe it is almost memorial day!  The girls are almost 7 months old. Time is flying by.  It seems our nanny is not ready to leave her other job.  Jordan interviewed some nannies, one of them said she "wouldn't do housework, just the kids, wouldn't claim anything, off the books, and she wanted 2 weeks vacation and a metro card!"
   It's crazy.  Only here in Brooklyn and in NY where the mothers are guilty do you have nannies, many of them  from the Caribbean and St. Vincent, demanding such ridiculous wages.  They want 800 to 900 a week, off the books, paid holidays, etc., no housework, and a metro card.  It's actually amazing, all of this usually with little or no college education.  A few of the women have taken college classes, but try and go in the workplace and demand this kind of money with very few skills other than you "like children" and you've taken CPR.
  It's like they take the position of the mother and hold her hostage and all the while she feels "guilty" for leaving her kids.  It's pretty amazing.
  There's apparently a whole system and the "nanies" talk.  One mother of twins Jordan knows, Carla, her nanny was approached by another nanny, to whom she did not give the job, and told that "she was being cheated by her employer."  The nanny went back to ask Carla if this was true.  Carla was giving her 750 a week, plus a metro card.
  But if Jordan wants to claim a nanny as part of her expense as working, the nanny would have to be on the books.  This most of them don't want to do.  I tried to explain to a few of these women, that if they are on the books they will be building up social security and unemployment, but the information seems to go nowhere.
   Currently we have one woman almost full time, Eugen, who is "called a Baby Nurse."  A baby nurse does nothing except take care of babies.  Since she came as a baby nurse, she never does anything around the house.  If the babies are sleeping she does cross word puzzles, watches TV, or talks on the phone.  She also asks me to do things, get a bottle, help her feed, etc.  Jordan says she hired her as a baby nurse, and since she never does anything anyway, she can't change her!