Ain't No Mary Poppins

Today I went to the Farmer's Market by The Grove for lunch with a friend. These covered or semi-covered markets smell the same all over the world, the one in Adelaide smells like the one in Okinawa which smells like the one in Aviano which smells like the one in Frankfurt which smells like the one in London which smells like the one next to The Grove. Candles and cooking oil, popcorn and tomatoes, body odor and perfume, spilled beer and vomit, the aromas are all remarkably the same. It's an amazing coincidence that I just take for granted.
   But that's not what I wanted to write about. I noticed a lot of women with baby strollers at The Grove. A lot. But, oddly enough, the babies and children were predominantly blonde and fair, while the women with the strollers were uniformly swarthy and olive-skinned. It took me a minute or two, but I finally figured it out when the little kids were asking for things in English, but the women behind the strollers were speaking to each other in Spanish.
   These are the nannies.
   I knew this sort of thing existed, it's no secret and I've seen it before, but I've never seen so many in one place. It's the shadow economy walking around in broad daylight. I don't know for sure, but I'm reasonably certain that these women's employers are not declaring their wages to the State and they probably pay in cash on Friday, which ensures a full week's worth of nanny-ing were the ladies to decide they wanted to quit. A handful of twenties sure can make you wait around for five days. The nannies, in turn, probably don't inform the IRS of their wages and so continue to exist on the fringes.
   It bothers me when the wealthy prey on the less well-off, and that's certainly what's happening with these nannies. The kids need looking after, this young woman needs a job, and so - voila! - a match is made in heaven. Except the reason the mother and father look for these women is because they don't have to pay them the going rate for proper child care from a reputable provider. Instead of $800 - $1000 dollars a week, the parents can probably pay $400 and the poor nanny thinks she's wandered into tall cotton, never realizing she's probably getting paid less than minimum wage.
   And they don't even sing or carry a talking umbrella. Who would at those prices?