Compared to the traditional 9-to-5 job, being a confinement nanny means more flexible working hours and relatively good pay. This is undoubtedly very attractive to the post-90s generation who pursue freedom and independence.
作者 | Elise
Edit | Tengyu
Title Image| The Story of the Rose
He Yuxi clearly remembers that when she told her parents two years ago that she had found a job as a confinement lady, the stunned and puzzled faces of her parents.
Since then, her parents have refused to let her go home for the Chinese New Year.
He Yuxi is 29 years old and graduated from a normal college in Hebei. According to her parents' arrangement, she should be admitted to graduate school after graduation, follow her mother's life trajectory, and become a teacher. But she didn't want to live a life where she could see the end of the day. After graduating, she left home on the pretext of going to Guangdong to find a job.
When her family heard about her again, she told them that she had completed her training and was about to come to her home to become a confinement nanny. And even though two years have passed, He Yuxi's parents still can't understand why their daughter, who has worked hard to cultivate a college degree, went to be a confinement wife?
Female college student daughter-in-law,
De-escalation or dimensionality de-escalation?
In the past, there was a male doctor who delivered takeaways, and now a female college student is a confinement wife.
With the rise of the domestic service industry, more and more young women choose to enter the confinement industry. Zhu Deyi, president of the Guangzhou Family Service Industry Association, found four or five years ago that there was a trend of younger and more highly educated confinement nannies, and more and more undergraduates and even graduate students entered the housekeeping industry. A few years ago, the post-90s confinement sister-in-law and childcare sister-in-law were only 10% in the maternal and child care industry, but now it is close to 40%.
He Yuxi is a college graduate from a normal college, majoring in preschool education. In her opinion, the young highly educated confinement lady can be called a "dimensionality reduction blow" for the older generation of confinement sisters.
(Photo/"Home on the Ramp")
He Yuxi said: "People have stereotypes about the profession of confinement lady, such as having to be old to have experience, and having to have children by themselves. In fact, today's young mothers have different requirements for confinement sisters, in addition to basic care of babies and mothers, they must also be able to take taxis, order takeout, be able to shop online, be able to do handicrafts, and be able to read English picture books. ”
Manager Chen, the person in charge of a confinement agency in Guangzhou, said: "This year is the Year of the Dragon, and it will be the peak year of childbirth, and the orders for confinement nannies in our center are scheduled until the end of the year. Now the confinement lady in her early 30s is more popular, and she has experience and physical strength. Most of the young confinement ladies are highly educated, easy to communicate, and are more popular. ”
In the past, around the age of 50 was regarded as the "golden age group" of confinement sao, and it was also the source of the stereotype of confinement sao. Nowadays, the new generation of parents will look at the educational background and learning ability of the confinement nanny, so the popularity of young confinement nannies in the market is gradually increasing. Young confinement ladies are more likely to accept the concept of scientific parenting, and are more suitable for the higher and complex work requirements of contemporary families, which is helpful to care for mothers and ensure that both employers and employers have a relatively good experience.
(Photo/"Home on the Ramp")
In He Yuxi's view, the market demand for highly educated confinement ladies is still strong: "The cost of an ordinary confinement center in Guangzhou is about 30,000 or 40,000 yuan for 26 days, and 50,000 or 60,000 yuan for the upper middle range." In comparison, the price of young confinement ladies is not expensive, and some of those with a better reputation have to queue up to make an appointment. ”
To become a qualified contemporary confinement nanny, you must integrate many skills such as cooking, psychological counseling, infant care, etc., and hold five or six certificates, such as pediatric massage therapist qualification certificate, lactation promoter certificate, etc., and their self-requirements are stricter. He Yuxi observed that many of them want to continue to learn and have some experience before starting a business, such as setting up a studio to meet the needs of pregnant women and making an industry.
The post-95 generation is unmarried and childless,
She works as a childcare sister-in-law in the Netherlands
Because of its professionalism and particularity, the baby care industry has become an emerging career choice under the needs of modern childcare. On Xiaohongshu, under the resumes of confinement sisters and nurseries who wrote "post-90s undergraduate young nurses, English level 6, like babies", they received a lot of consultation from mothers. A post-95 female college student has been in the industry for two years, and the order has been lined up for 8 months.
In the eyes of mothers, young and high-quality parenting sister-in-law is hard to find, and she has the same set of theories as high-quality men - "real high-quality men are rarely circulated in the market", and confinement sister-in-law is the same. Some good confinement nannies will be hired by employers to continue to serve as childcare sisters-in-law after the child is full moon.
Abby is a post-95 generation, unmarried and childless, and especially fond of children. When she was studying in the Netherlands, she took advantage of the holidays to work to earn living expenses, and found a job as a childcare sister-in-law for a local family, taking care of two children, her sister is 10 years old and her brother is 6 years old.
The hostess of this Dutch family is a Chinese, so when choosing a sister-in-law, Abby was chosen. Abby is responsible for transporting the children to and from school, accompanying them after school, making breakfast and dinner, and doing some of the housework. When she first entered someone else's home, she was very cautious: "In order to get the job done according to the plan, I would make a weekly schedule and make a schedule. Effective working hours are about 30 hours per week, with weekends off. ”
(Photo/"Kim Ji-young born in 82")
Schools in the Netherlands are homework-free, and children leave school by 12 noon or 3 p.m. most days. But the hostess is a typical Chinese tiger mother, and daily "rolling babies" are inevitable. The siblings that Abby takes care of have to learn cello, tennis, gymnastics, Chinese, and chess after class, learn a lot, and have good grades, and are often in the top few in each study class.
At first, Abby thought that the siblings were very special: they could fight, but they were very polite, and they would not cry when they were scolded, and the food was distributed before eating, and they had a sense of order. "In the Netherlands, you will see a completely different educational philosophy than traditional education in China. It was only when the tiger mother stared at her child doing her homework that I regained that familiar feeling. ”
Abby's daily life as a childcare sister-in-law in Europe. In addition to picking up and dropping off children, sometimes I also have to participate in children's outdoor activities on behalf of my employer. (Photo/Provided by the interviewee)
During the two months of living together, Abby invested herself in her affection for the child. She enjoys chatting with her children on the way to school, delights in their progress, occasionally has conflicts with demanding tiger mothers, and children are sometimes picky eaters, but she overcomes them one by one.
Abby doesn't see any conflict between her status as a sister-in-law and an international student, and the experience is more like a social practice than a simple job for her: "I want to put into practice the educational philosophy I learned at university, and then I may take a list to go to Germany to be a confinement wife." Before I do that, I'm going to take the time to do some training. ”
The personality is too strong, don't be a confinement wife?
Compared to traditional career paths, confinement nanny work means more flexible working hours and relatively good pay. This is undoubtedly a great attraction for young people who pursue freedom and independence and do not want to become office workers.
According to the "2021 White Paper on Maternal and Child Service Consumption", the average monthly salary of confinement maids in 36 key cities across the country is 13,450 yuan, and the platform for aunts in 2022 shows that the average monthly salary of confinement ladies is 18,967 yuan, which is still the highest average monthly salary in the housekeeping industry, followed by childcare sisters-in-law. In addition, the "2023 China Blue-Collar Group Employment Research Report" also shows that confinement nannies have the highest monthly income level among blue-collar groups, with an average of 8,824 yuan.
(Photo/"Kim Ji-young born in 82")
Today, the average salary of experienced confinement ladies in first-tier cities has exceeded 20,000 yuan/month, which far exceeds the local average salary and even the income level of white-collar workers. Some confinement sisters, orders have been scheduled until 2025.
In addition to salary, relatively free working hours are the reason why He Yuxi is willing to continue to be a confinement lady: "I like to travel very much, and it just so happens that the degree of freedom of a confinement lady is very high, and I can rest as long as I want after receiving orders." I work about 10 months a year and spend 2 months traveling. In addition to travel expenses, you can still save 100,000 yuan a year. ”
With the change of social concepts, the professional cognition of confinement ladies is constantly changing. He Yuxi said: "In fact, it takes courage to dare to dive, and not everyone is willing to take off Kong Yiji's robe. Especially, when your employer is a peer, and this is essentially a profession with a clear division between master and servant, you can have your own opinions, but it is better not to be too assertive, and you can also have your own personality, but it is better not to show too much personality. A good confinement lady or parenting sister-in-law must learn to blend into each different family like a chameleon and change her color. ”
(Photo/"Home on the Ramp")
After getting to know more peers, He Yuxi felt that the confinement lady began to become a new way for some post-90s women to realize their self-worth. Young confinement ladies may lack some parenting experience, but the accumulation of experience does not necessarily depend on age and childbirth experience, as long as they continue to practice after receiving professional training, the experience value will be improved, and they will become qualified or even excellent confinement nannies.
These young post-90s confinement ladies with high academic qualifications, with advanced parenting concepts and professional skills, provide scientific and intimate services for young families. They are better able to communicate and communicate with young parents, help them establish correct parenting concepts, and relieve the pressure of parenting.
Li Xiaoyin, deputy secretary-general of the Beijing Domestic Service Association, believes that with the change of social concepts, more and more people have begun to recognize this profession, which can objectively reduce the concerns of young people to a certain extent: "We need to face this phenomenon with an open and inclusive attitude, and at the same time, we should actively think about and explore how to create a more friendly and inclusive professional environment for young people." ”
He Yuxi is often asked questions such as "why would you rather choose to take care of someone else's child than become a parent yourself?" He Yuxi's answer to this is "fate has not arrived".
(Photo/"Home on the Ramp")
In her opinion, the post-90s generation chose not to have children and go to the confinement sister-in-law, which is a phenomenon of superposition of various factors, not a simple matter of preference, and there is no conflict between the two. She just feels that the current workplace is still not friendly enough for women, and childbirth may have an irreversible impact on the career. They are more inclined to devote their limited resources and energy to self-development and career advancement.
A sense of security remains the most important factor to consider. He Yuxi said that the rise of artificial intelligence is an obvious trend, and many people are worried that their jobs will be replaced by machines, or have been replaced, "but the job of confinement sister, I think it will still exist for a long time."