Non-Jewish babysitters and nannies?

If you want your kids to be fluent in Polish or Spanish, go right ahead. This is another casualty of American immigration policies. At least with the Artscroll Shas in Spanish, Lupe the nanny can help Yanky with his homework.

The Spanish sitters maybe from Zera Yisroel, the children of anusim.

I don’t understand why you are so cynical.

There is no reason to discriminate against foreign-born nannies who speak good English.

Furthermore, those who take care of children professionally understand that they are being paid to raise the children according to the rules of the household. The only issue is that you may not want to let them prepare food, because they could treif up the kitchen. Otherwise, I don’t see the problem.

In families that have two full-time breadwinners, some sort of childcare is a necessity, and not everyone is lucky enough to have healthy parents living nearby who can babysit the grandchildren. It’s not a matter of how many children you have, it’s just that a full-time work schedule doesn’t always sync with school schedules (plus, what do you do before they start school?)

“I am sure there are countless stories where Yiddishkeit has been jeopardized because of the nanny”

Well if git mishege is sure I guess frum people should just quit their jobs and hope for the best

Re rebdoniel’s first post: Do you really mean to imply that US immigration law is supposed to protect Americans from Spanish and Polish nannies? That is as unsound as the view that US immigration law should protect Christians from the spread of Halachah and the appearance of hechshers on packaged foods.

Torah: Of course. She is raising the royal baby the way a Jewish mother should. 🙂

Gitmishege

1&2) not always for many it is non-jewish babysitter vs job (To be clear not for me)

3) If you had real stories or even one as anecdoatal and silly as it may be to genaralize based on it, you would have a point (though you would still be wrong.)To generalize based on what you “are sure of” is beyond absurd and speaks volumes about the understatement that is your name.

I am thankful that Hashem gives me the opportunity (and strength) to watch my baby grandson half-days while my daughter works as an OT. I get to spend quality time with him every day, and she is able to be with him for the rest of the day. It’s a really great arrangement, and my yingeleh gets to “daven” with me, and already recognizes when I sing Modeh Ani and Torah Torah to him. He quiets down when I say Shma. This, you cannot get from a non-Jewish babysitter. It really is a pity that so many small and impressionable frum children are not being exposed to what their own mommies would be doing with them, simply because the caregiver is incapable of Yiddishe taam.

The OP is correct. Based on Shulchan Oruch E”H 22:4 one is not even permitted to give a child to a non-jew even to teach him a profession [reasons: chashad of killing, teaching meenus, a.o.] – never mind having the non-jew take care of the child all day.

On a related issue, if the care is done in the Jew’s house, the keilim might need tevila [and perhaps even kashering].

jewishfeminist02 – we live by halacho, and not ‘our feelings.’

American immigration law is supposed to keep illegal immigrants out of the workforce, where they offer cheap labor, such as domestics, baby nurses, short order cooks, day laborers, pool boys, etc. Due to the cheap labor our failure to enforce the law creates, Jews now generally don’t hire other Jews, since Jews generally are in this country legally. Why pay Tzippi a minimum wage to watch your kids, when you can pay Lupe $5 an hour? Why pay Moishe to make bourekas for minimum wage at a kosher pizza place when Juan will do the same for $4 an hour?

What Oomis described is beautiful. To have a rebbetzin of bubbe age look after your child, feed them kosher home cooking, give them a sense of varmkeit, teach them tefillos and zemiros, etc. is precious.

Where did I mention “feelings”?

I too live according to halacha. But I don’t understand your source– it would seem to prohibit any sort of education from a non-Jewish teacher, yet many, many frum families send their children to some sort of college or graduate program not run by Jews. Even day schools frequently employ non-Jewish teachers for secular subjects. (Not to mention that I am sure a posek would allow the child care for the sake of parnassah, if a Jewish provider were unavailable or would charge significantly more money).

I will ask my husband about it when he gets home.

jewishfeminist02 – a college is not a one-on-one situation; and there we are speaking of adults.

We’re speaking of one non-jew taking care of a child [or children] – that’s not the same as an adult in college.

“jewishfeminist02 – a college is not a one-on-one situation; and there we are speaking of adults.

We’re speaking of one non-jew taking care of a child [or children] – that’s not the same as an adult in college.”

I also mentioned non-Jewish teachers in day schools (and actually, Bais Yaakov of Baltimore has their high school girls take courses at community college). But fine. So according to your opinion, one should also not hire a non-Jewish math tutor?

chgoachdus made a valid point that I have been feeling for a long time. Many women who go out to the workforce and pay for a caregiver, are earning so little when the scales are balanced, that it hardly seems worth leaving the baby for what they net at the end of the day. Often (and I know this to be fact), the women simply do not want to be at home with a child all day. I find that very sad, that we have come to a place intellectually and emotionally, where caring for your OWN baby is boring, a burden, unstimulating, unfulfilling, WHATEVER negative you want to attach.

I recognize, however, that despite my own personal feelings on the subject, that we always must deal with what IS and not what we would love to see be the case. My children’s generation has grown up with a very different mindset from my own, and not in any small measure due to the exhorbitant expenses attendant in living a reasonable life as a frum person. Yeshivah tuition, kosher food (especially for Shabbos and Yom Tov), etc. are ALL very high cost, and paying for these things comes WITH a high cost as well.

But if the money being earned is merely coming into one end of the wallet and going out the other to the (non-Jewish) babysitter, then at what cost are women leaving their children for the bulk of the day, when they really are benefitting only marginally financially? (Not talking about women who MUST work outside because their husband’s income doesn’t cover expenses at all).

“For the record, my neighbor had a nanny that fed the children treif. My sister has a friend that had a nanny that was watching the kids on rosh Hashana while the parents were davening and put on a dvd to keep them occupied. Those 2 stories come to my mind and I am sure there are plenty others.”

Everyone has nanny horror stories. I’m sure there are frum nannies who forget to feed the kids, or leave a huge mess, or snoop, or steal, or put the kids in front of the TV all day while they do their nails, etc etc. There are probably also people who are not Jewish who pretend to be frum, or people from frum families who are secretly off the derech, or whatever.

Bottom line: don’t entrust your children to just anyone. Check references and go through a “trial run” while you or your spouse is at home. There are definitely reasons not to use a non-Jewish nanny, but this is not one of them.