Find in L.A. Has a Manny Agency, and Here's Why Your Family Might Need It Does your kid need some regular looking after, but you can’t seem to find the right person? Consider a manny, aka a male nanny, the dude babysitter we’ve noticed more and more around the school pickup line and on the sidelines at basketball practice.
First off, isn’t it weird and sort of retro-equality to be fixated on the gender of your kid’s caretaker? Talking about male versus female nannies is more about acknowledging that, traditionally, childcare duties have been seen as women’s work. Considering men as care providers is actually more open-minded, progressive and possibly more beneficial for the family. Why might a family opt for a manny versus a female nanny? While all childcare dynamics are, of course, individual to the particular kids and family, we heard time and again that a male caretaker is invaluable for providing a consistent positive
male role model for children. Especially when dads are not in the picture or not around a lot due to work or travel, according to Michael Lin, owner of Mannies of L.A., a childcare agency that matches educated men who have skills like art and music and good driving records with families in the SoCal area. “A common theme,” Lin says, “is parents calling to say their female nanny was great for the past four years when kids were little, but now she can’t keep up.”
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What sort of things does a manny do? In theory, they do everything you’d want any babysitter to do: pick up your child, prepare meals, help with homework and entertain or engage them. According to television writer and producer Ilene Rosenzweig, who lives in Hancock Park with her husband and two early-teen boys, mannies are more of a cool bro for hanging out with. “After about ages 5 and 7, my boys didn’t want to hang out with a female nanny/mommy figure anymore,”
she says. “They wanted to hang out with a dude, to play ultimate Frisbee or flag football or make weird horror movies that I would have never thought of.” Additionally, Rosenzweig says, she found that her boys were more apt to respond to discipline from this older-brother figure who they wanted to impress. So is a manny just for babysitting little boys? Not at all. Since establishing a male role model is a big part of the job, with younger girls a manny can demonstrate that men can also be sensitive and caring, according to Lin. How can I try a manny? You can put the word out among your personal contacts, as Rosenzweig did, or turn to an agency such as Mannies of L.A. That agency, which has placed more than 70 male nannies as far away as Orange County and San Francisco in four years of operation, works this way: You pay a $150 finder’s fee and fill out an application, and then you are matched with a manny who has a trial day and a trial week. If the manny is a go, the client pays the agency 15 percent of the manny’s annual compensation for a year. And there’s a 90-day guarantee that if something doesn’t work out, the agency will replace your manny.
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