Carria is the beginning and the end

I met Carria when I began to explore the nannies' labor network in the nearby children's playground. This became a pilot study for the thesis I'm writing now. Carria had faltering English since she had been here only a year, but she was young and didn't seem to know many people. She was taking English at a nearby adult school and since she was willing to talk, I interviewed her. Carria had a live-in job watching the 4-month old son of a single working mother. She was the last of ten El Salvadoran brothers and sisters to join their mother here in LA. Her sister had a job waiting for her when she came, which demonstrates the family network as a means of procuring jobs. Carria brought the baby to the park twice a week. She was hungry for social interaction with anyone, adults or children. I interviewed her again 16 months later. The boy was 20 months old. They visited the park every day. Her English had greatly improved, she had moved out and now lived in her own apartment, drove to work, and planned to ask for a raise in a year. This job paid $11/hr. She worked four jobs to afford her rent. She loved her job and the little boy. The next time we met she told me her employer gave her two weeks to find a new job because the boy would enter preschool. Carria was shocked and hopeful. The employer promised to help her make ends meet. This never happened, but a few months later she had found two partime jobs. Carria was now very disillusioned. For example, a potential employer wanted childcare for 3 kids plus lots of cleaning for only $12/hr. I happened to interview a different nanny who was troubled by the set-up with her own employer. Sometimes the mother would hide under the bed so she wouldn't have to be with her own children, or ask the nanny to say she wasn't home. When this nanny left at the end of the day, another would come take over for the evening shift. Another came on weekends, and this mother did not hold a job. The night shift nanny was Carria. I felt my study had come full circle.