When American University graduate Elyse Barletta, 27, was looking for a full-time nannying position recently in Charlotte, N.C., three families wanted to hire her””all were impressed by her college education.
“They wanted someone who could help with their children’s homework,” said Barletta, a history major who made the dean’s list and is proficient in French.
Experts say young women like Barletta make up a fast-growing segment of the nanny industry: College graduates who could go into law, medicine or other fields but are choosing to become career nannies, sometimes because they struggled to find jobs in their desired professions. These highly credentialed child-minders are being greeted with open arms into middle-class and upper-class families who want to give their kids an edge in an increasingly competitive world.
Until I read the article, I thought they wanted to be mayor of New York City.
The real picture: go to college for four years, spend thousands of dollars and then end up doing job were you do not need that scrap of sheepskin in the first place. College is overrated.