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Caregivers for kids often handle several duties, make home run more smoothly.
It's a weeknight at Lisa and Dave Dennerll's home,
and dinner is simmering on the stove. Bobby, 6, and Angelina,
almost 2, scamper through the family room and kitchen. Lisa and
Dave have just returned from work, and waiting for them on the
kitchen island is a small spiral notebook detailing the day's
events, meticulously recorded in blue pen by their nanny, Michelle
Wullkotte.
"You pout? I've never seen you pout before," says
Dave, after reading that Bobby lost a game of checkers to Wullkotte
earlier that day.
Being a reporter is just one of Wullkotte's daily
duties. She also is a caregiver, a playmate, a reader, a sometimes
cook and chauffeur and a teacher of everything from checkers to
manners to how to gracefully admit defeat.
What Wullkotte and other nannies are not are fairy
godmothers who swoop into homes and magically transform devilish
children into angels.
TV shows including ABC's British import
"Supernanny" and Fox's "Nanny 911" and a plot line on ABC's
"Desperate Housewives" might lead some parents to believe they
can.
Unlike the TV shows, most American nannies do not
dictate how to discipline children. Most also do not work in a home
for just a week or two, and they definitely don't land in homes
Mary Poppins-style, whisking children away on adventures against
their parents' wishes.
Rather, nannies have become like family members,
staying on the job for several years and sometimes even visiting
their past charges after they've moved on to other jobs.
Personal attention important
The Dennerlls of Cincinnati hired Wullkotte, 50, in
January, after Lisa returned to work full time after taking a year
and a half off when Angelina was born.
They had a nanny for Bobby when he was a toddler,
and then moved him into day care. But they say he frequently became
sick, and they wanted him to receive the personal attention that a
nanny could provide. They also didn't want the stress of
transporting Bobby to kindergarten in one part of town and Angelina
to day care in another.
"Getting a kid out the door in the morning is a big
deal," Dave says. "Just getting to work is a major
accomplishment."
So the Dennerlls contacted a nanny placement agency
and thought Wullkotte -- a nanny for the past four years who has
teaching experience and two grown sons -- was a good fit. Wullkotte
works three 10-hour days and two five-hour days at the Dennerlls'
home.
Wullkotte talks to the parents about discipline
first, so both are on the same page, she says. She and the
Dennerlls favor time-outs, though not to the point of making the
children sit on a "naughty stool" as "Supernanny" Jo Frost
does.
However, Frost's methods seem to have struck a
chord: Her book, "Supernanny: How to Get the Best from Your
Children" (Hyperion; $14.95) is on the New York Times' list of
best-selling paperback advice books.
More than half of employers don't report nannies on
their tax returns, says Pat Cascio, president of the Houston-based
International Nanny Association.
But the TV shows are sparking an interest in
nannies. Cascio says revenue from nanny placement fees at her
agency, Morningside Nannies, doubled from about mid-December to
mid-January.
Male nannies -- sometimes referred to as "mannies"
-- do exist, but they likely make up less than 1 percent of working
nannies, says Cascio.
You could call this a diaper's-eye view of Hollywood celebrity. 
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