Have I Been Nanny Dissed??? (This is LONG for me)

Okay I must say that I can be a bit of a pessimist, thinkin something crazy is just waiting and lurking around the corner if I don't take extra precautions to "ward off evil" (yeah I can go there sometimes) LOL. So all that being said, I started to realize that I truly cannot manage all of these lovely babies that I have at home all day long with no help. My Hunny and I have been going back and forth about the nanny/mother helper type of assistance. Cuz like I said before I'm a lil (well maybe a lot) paranoid and barely have my babies around family, let alone a TOTAL stranger who is gonna come into my home and "poof" be in all good with the family.

So anyway, I was searching online cuz my azz has no clue on how to go about finding a nany and I don't know of anyone who has a nanny. Most folks I know just have sitters and homes of close friends or relatives who do some sort of daycare. And what I wanted was someone who could come to me. Okay so on CraigsList.org there's a whole section for "childcare" for whatever state city where you live. Since we were gonna be moving to Washington I started lookin there. No I don't know if some of yall know but finding a nanny "of color" ain't no easy feat. Especically if you looking for one of African decent (i.e. from america, the caribbean, africa, etc). Not that I don't want an Asian or Latina nanny, I just wanted my babies to be around someone who at least sort of looked like me, you know?

Well after searching and searching and searching (I even went to some of those "nanny sites" and had no better luck there) I found a young girl who is about my nieces age and who at least looked like she could be black (sorta Lisa Bonet'ish looking). She had a nice ad saying she was a loving summer nanny and possibly could work after summer too. (I'm on the bootleg so I don't know how to link sh*t, so bare with me.) http://seattle.craigslist.org/est/kid/353902497.html So my Hunny he sent what I thought was a clever response and inviting to this potential nanny.
Subject: NANNY NEWS: Family of Six in Redmond Seek Loving Summer
Nanny for Nanny Help

Hello, We wanted to inquire about your nanny services for our family. We've recently moved to the Redmond, Washington area from San Francisco and saw your craiglist post. We are a family of five, including Alyson and Langston, our three daughters, Amira (5), Aaliyah (3), and Ayana (19 months) and a fourth baby on the way due to arrive in August 2007. Among the things that stood out in your ad (Langston works in advertising/marketing) was the examples and the fact that you have experience as an educator (Alyson is a long time educator). We are open to develop an on-going situation that goes beyond the summer (winter/spring breaks,etc) and most of all help us with our growing family. We would love to speak to you more about your nanny services.
Alyson and Langston Richardson
http://the_invisible_writer.blogspot.com/
http://www.thedaughtersofdestinyfilm.com/
http://www.thedaughtersofdestinyfilm.com/blog

So I was excited when she emailed back that same day. What I forget to mention is that I had seen this EXACT ad a few months earlier while we were still in Cali, like back in April, and was thinkin that she probably had a hard time findin a family cuz most folks weren't lookin for "black" girls. And she seemed like she was active, which is what my two oldest need. And I was thinking it could be a potential match. Well since my Hunny including links to our blogs with family photos etc, I thought it would give her a chance to see us before she met us (I guess he was thinking the same thing also). Well her response started off good and then I got a litttle skeptical because I was always told that when looking for employment you are suppose to "sell" or "market" yourself and not the opposite. She seemd to be sort of "un-marketing" herself about halfway thru the response. But then maybe I'm just tripping. So this is what she replied.

Hello Allyson & Langston,
Thank you first of all for responding to my ad. I think there were 1 or 2 spelling errors but thank you for the compliments. You sound like a great family, and I am very enthusiastic about learning to see if we could be a better match. My educator experience is not too intense (I'm only 21) but I did spend time Student Teaching a 1st grade classroom for a school year (earning a scholarship) and was the lead teacher for a preschool classroom for 2 year olds. I would love to develop an ongoing relationship 20 with a family, however my schedule changes in the Fall, and thereafter next Fall of 2008, I am not sure where I will be. I am a junior college now playing basketball in north Seattle. I am hoping to transfer to a 4 year school, and playing somewhere for my junior year in 2008/2009. This fall, 07, I will be available during the day until about 2:00pm. I am not sure if this will work with your schedule, but if it does I'd love to speak to you further. I live in Bellevue, which is about a 20 minute commute from Redmond (just had a BBALL game there tonight), but can be worse with the traffic. At this point I am a full-time student (online), and an athlete for the schools team. I have managed to nanny on a part-time basis during the school year, but at this time I am mostly a nanny professional during the summer as it is my first priority. My only concern is that you'll need someone more flexible during the school year, I can be consistent with my hours, and somewhat flexible, but will require the same with basketball. I have attached my resume for you review my experience, I have been interviewing with families this week, and hope to make a decision soon. I hope to hear from you, and I thank you again for the email.
Jayme

Now after reading that I wasn't quite sure if she was turning down the job that we never offered or if maybe she was just not used to being interviewed. I emailed her anyway. Because I wasn't looking for a live-in nanny or a true live-out one. I just wanted someone part-time who could really help me out with the girls, since I'm a SAHM it's not like I need someone all day, everyday. I emailed her back the following day, since it was very late when she sent her reply. And this is what I said.

Hi Jayme! We would love to schedule a meeting with you. Our schedule is quite flexible as we were not looking for a fulltime live in or live out nanny, just someone who could help me out on a part time basis 2 or 3 days during the week. I'm a SAHM and mostly need assistance in trying to manage my very active 5 and 3 year old daughters (who constantly beg for me to "take me to the slide and out on the concrete to walk"). Also it's hard for me to run errands at almost 9 months pregnant and toting 3 active babies who like to do there own thing. So hopefully our schedules will work for each other. Let's see if we all can set up a meeting with a date and time that works for everyone (I'm open because I'm home all day :-) ) - Alyson

Now here's what happened next. . . . . NOTHING. Ol' girl didn't ever respond to my email, call (cuz my Hunny included our phone number) NOTHING. She didn't say she wasn't interested, or that she'd gotten another job. It's like "poof" like we never had an email correspondance at all. So at first I was feeling nanny dissed cuz I was thinking that maybe she checked out our websites and found out we were actual African folks. Then I talked to my girlfriend on the east about it, and she said ol' girl probably just flaky and wishy-washy like folks can be and ain't nothing too it. I was like yeah, you probably right. And who want somebody flaky and sh*t watchin they kids, you know? So that was that right? Now this was about 2 weeks ago.

Guess what I found this afternoon searching on my favorite place in the world, again? Yes, ol' girl's add. This time she took down the little post card type thing she'd put up on the first one. She put in a real website that went into all this extensive detail about how she been a nanny since birth and all these young azz children she's cared for (in other states now), etc, etc. So this is the new ad I found today, which was actually the very first one I clicked on in my area - no lying I swear, I swear.

If you are looking for an on-call nanny/sitter, please contact me! I am looking for supplemental hours, and am very excited to meet you and your family! Potential for long-term! It's always nice to have a sitter that the kids know and are comfortable with so would love to continue for years to come. Please take a look at my site, that has all of the information you need, including contact info. Looking forward to hearing from you! http://www.freewebs.com/love2nanny Please visit my site, it will also be updated with more pictures/references!!

Now if I'm not mistaken ain't this the SAME girl who told me by like the end of this year she doesn't know WHERE she'll be. Well according to her website, she's gonna be right here. Now yall I didn't know this was the same girl who my Hunny emailed a few weeks ago and then fell off the face of the earth. I still didn't know when I went to her website. However once I looked at her pic, I had a feeling that she looked really really familiar. And it was not confirmed until I clicked on her resume section and saw her name. Yes this is the same girl.

Since this IS the same girl and I confirmed it cuz that's the name she signed at the end of the email. My question is this, am I being nanny dissed? Is that hot azz New York times article true, that other colored folks don't want to work for Africans ANYWHERE? Are we really being dissed by our own people? Now let me not make assumptions or mass stereotypical conclusions and sh*t. Cuz I don't want to do what other folks do to Africans just because we the opposite shade of white. But I was just wondering. It's one of those things that "makes you go hmmmmm " as Arsenio would say.