The Kids Are Alright Now
Moving to Shanghai with children can be difficult if both the mother and father are busy professionals. Finding a nanny or ayi to watch the kids can be a complicated process, but Shanghai has a number of options available for both full and part time domestic help.
Hannes and Anne-Christine Helander moved to Shanghai a year and a half ago to pursue their respective careers in business consulting and marketing. Along with them came their two children, Mathilda and Sebastian, respectively aged nine and seven. As soon as the couple arrived in Shanghai, the problem as to who would take care of the children arose. At first, they hired a local student to work as a babysitter.
This is a common solution for many busy families in Shanghai. Sites like Great Au Pair enable parents to search Shanghai’s pool of international students looking to pick up some extra money while studying. Many have solid or native English skills as well as pedagogical training. The only drawback to this solution is that students are often only available for the short term, so after six months or a year families are on the search again.
This is exactly what happened to the Helanders. When their student au pair resigned after a year, they went looking for a more permanent solution, opting to deal with a local ayi recruiting agency. Grace, their new Chinese ayi, has limited English and works six hours per day, doing household work and babysitting at the same time. Her main task is to pick up the kids from school at around four when the school bus arrives and spend a couple of hours with them before Hannes and Anne-Christine return from work.
When hiring an ayi from an agency, the price depends mostly on language skills, ranging from RMB 3,000 to RMB 5,000 per month. Agencies take about 40 per cent of the first month’s salary as a deposit, but also usually guarantee that if you don’t like your ayi, they’ll find another one for you.
Cindy Xu, the administrator of CC Shanghai Service Agency says, “We have a couple of babysitters who can speak English. Others have a special training certificate for maids issued by the Chinese government. In addition, we ask previous employers to write recommendation letters for our nannies, so that’s how we guarantee our service.”
While some employers may emphasise training and accreditation or English language skills, standards vary. The owner of another agency Kedajia, Jin Lixian has been running her company for more than five years. “We have 20 nannies. They come from different Chinese provinces to work in Shanghai. Usually, they are not qualified as caretakers, but they have good experience and they love kids,” she says.
CC Shanghai Service Agency. Web: www.ccshanghai.com.cn
Great Au Pair. Web: www.greataupair.com
Kedajia, Meilong Er Cun, Number 30, Unit 103 (near the intersection of Yimei Lu and Zhenxi Lu). Tel: 6455 7202
