Article and photo by Polina Fishof
While most of her friends attend college hoping to one day enter the corporate world, 25-year-old Christina Edwards spends her days as a nanny, working 50 hours a week caring for two small children.
Edwards, who lives in Etna, west of Bangor, said she never went to college because she did not feel comfortable with the idea of incurring student loans and then facing the uncertainty of finding work.
While she is considering whether to continue her education, she is more focused on pursuing an entrepreneurial avenue by opening a nanny agency in Bangor.
The idea of a new business came to Edwards when she started getting more requests to babysit than she could handle.
In addition to her main job caring for one family’s 2½-year-old boy and 9-month-old girl, she also picks up 20 to 30 hours a week babysitting for other families in the evenings.
“I’m going to have to start referring my friends,” Edwards said during an interview at Bangor’s Crosspoint Church, where she is a member of a youth group.
Looking at her peers who are pursuing college degrees, Edwards said she realized that opening her own business might be the only way for her to earn more money without a college degree.
A passion for providing child care runs in Edwards’ family. Her mother, who is originally from Norway, went to Europe to participate in an au pair program. Her sister works as a nanny for a family in New York City.
“She (her sister) makes way more than me,” Edwards said. Her sister makes $50 an hour, while Edwards’ hourly rate is $15 at the most.
While Edwards makes much less than her sister, she makes 50 percent more than an average non-college educated worker in Maine, where the minimum wage is currently $10 per hour.
When Edwards divorced last year, she had to move back in with her mother. The idea of starting her own business and being able to connect other nannies in the area gives her hope for the future.
Bangor has no nanny agencies, and her only competition would be in-home daycare services that charge about $100 per week and care for multiple children at once.
Even though the cost of in-home day care is much lower than a private nanny rate, the quality of the care is significantly different, Edwards said, pointing out there is simply not enough time to give each child the attention she or he needs. In addition, most day-care homes do not care for infants, she added.
Edwards also envisions creating a supporting community for nannies. The support groups available to nannies in the area are currently only online, facilitated by social media networks.
By creating her own agency, Edwards is hoping to not only bring families and nannies together but to provide child-care training and support for young nannies to advance their skills.