As the actress Keeley Hawes has hired a manny to look after her kids it has fired up discussion on men working in childcare again.
Does it matter if you nanny is male or female?
Would you have issue if your child had a male teacher at school or nursery?
After working in the childcare industry i will say now that any man that wanted to work in one of my nurseries i grabbed with both hands (not literally you can get done for that kind of thing!)
I have always been of the opinion that they add many things to the childs daycare experience and also the the work team balance. Many children are brought up in households with no strong male figure and i have always felt that is where a male figure in their education becomes really important.
At the same time i really do understand why so many men do not want to work in childcare. I have had several parents who have expressed balantent dislike for male staff members caring for their child, one who even removed their child on the days he worked simply because ‘any man who works with kids is going to be weird’.
Sadly i think the biggest reason so few men work in childcare is because its such awful money, no man could be a main earner of a household on that money and at training stage they know this so from the start it is not considered an employment option. This is at great loss to our children.
The average day nursery worker gets paid less than a street cleaner or gardener. Fact.