Between Care As a Profession and Care As an Obligation: An Analysis Based on Life Stories from Nannies Who Are Mothers of Young Children in the City of Belo Horizonte, Brazil, and Its Metropolitan Region

The objective of this work is to analyze how the care of young children permeates the lives of women who, in addition to working as nannies, are mothers of young children themselves. I aim to delve into their specific situation using an ethnosociological research approach and drawing on life stories from six women working as nannies in the city of Belo Horizonte (or its Metropolitan Region), Brazil, each of whom has at least one child under the age of ten. The collected narratives reaffirm the multiplicity of female experiences in relation to motherhood and are marked by efforts to avoid replicating the violence and lack they experienced in their own childhoods. Unplanned pregnancies shape the experiences of these women, who rely on predominantly female support networks, often with the presence of their own mothers, to care for their children. It is a recurring perception that they take better care of their employers' children than their own, and feelings of guilt are common, attesting to the enduring influence of hegemonic ideals of motherhood and femininity. The ambiguity of care work is evident in the narrators' accounts: when they engage in paid caregiving as nannies, their affection for the children—and, at times, for their employers—coexists with unfair working conditions, instances of disrespect, violence, exhaustion, and the insensitivity of some employers toward the urgent needs of the workers' own children, all of which have consequences for their personal lives and motherhood. When they care without remuneration, as mothers, ambivalences arise as their affection for their children and the desire to study and achieve better professional positions — as examples for their children — coexist with guilt, exhaustion, unwanted changes in life plans, increased financial needs to support others, potential mental health issues, and the suppression of personal desires to fulfill their caregiving responsibilities.