Why childcare has no infrastructure

The working relationship between a family and a nanny is one of the most intimate and consequential professional arrangements that exists. And yet the infrastructure supporting this relationship amounts to a WhatsApp group and a verbal handover at the end of the day.

Most industries of comparable complexity have developed professional tools over time. Childcare has not. The result is a professional vacuum. Nannies cannot easily prove what they have done. Families cannot easily verify who they are hiring.

What infrastructure would look like

Infrastructure means: a system that holds the relationship together, makes it traceable, and gives both parties a shared record of what happened. In childcare, that means a structured session — with a formal start, a documented middle, and a formal close.

The absence of this infrastructure has not been neutral. It has cost nannies the ability to prove their professional experience. It has cost families the ability to make informed hiring decisions. It has cost children the permanent record of their earliest years.