… On Monday morning, 60% of married mothers will resume the routine of handing over their preschool children to an army of other women, according to a recent U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics report. Once they’re done with making a living at their day jobs, the division of labor on the domestic front will be as uneven as it has ever been. Women will still do most of the work around the house, and mothers will still change far more than their fair share of diapers…

Variously known as child care providers, nannies or babysitters, they are indeed an army. Without them to hold down the fort and provide the rest of us with the freedom to choose between career and children, neither side in the “Mommy Wars” would have been able to fire a single salvo. Were they not available to help rear the next generation of worker bees, there never would have been a “second shift,” never mind a Nancy Pelosi in the House or a Hillary Clinton on the presidential primary ballot…

Let us hope that these nannies receive cards and chocolates from their own families, because it is unlikely that they receive them from anyone who has been holding forth on whether mothers should rejoin the workforce. It is not that we don’t treasure the “other mothers” in our lives. It is that along with the appreciation comes doubt, resentment and guilt about our own choices as working mothers…

Source: USA TODAY
http://blogs.usatoday.com/oped/2007/05/nannies_the_oth.html