WHAT IF THE writers of Mary Poppins and Nanny McPhee had set their stories in Hong Kong? Chances are it would be a very different woman who comes to the aid of those families in distress. One who arrives by plane, speaks a foreign language in addition to English or Cantonese, has an army of dependents back home in her native country and juggles the childcare along with every other chore in the home from cooking and cleaning to nursing and housekeeping - and all without magical powers.
Poppins and McPhee would probably be out of a job in Hong Kong, out-numbered and undercut by the thousands of domestic helpers who work for little more than a tenth of the $32,000 monthly salary commanded by the modern-day nanny.
But the nanny does exist in Hong Kong, although in small numbers and in the homes of the rich and elite. Edith Lemardelee has been a nanny in Hong Kong for 12 years, arriving here with a French family after finishing university and spending a year as an au pair in England. She has so far worked for five families: expatriate Europeans and Americans and two wealthy local Chinese families. Most of her employers have been high-earning investment bankers. Lemardelee's present charge is an 11-year-old-girl whom she has been looking after for five years.
But Lemardelee isn't the stereotypical nanny: she lives in her own apartment, rather than the family home, and doesn't wear a uniform. And she earns far more than nannies of the past and can expect her salary to continue rising fast. 'I've seen salaries multiply by four in the past 10 years,' she says. 'A lot of girls come here with crazy ideas money-wise. They know people are on big salaries and they want a part of it.
'I think I'm worth the salary. I know exactly what I'm doing with a child. I will do everything for their well-being and development. I'm trained just for that. But I don't think it's fair when I look at the salaries of locals.
'Girls who come here have to be careful not to get too greedy or they'll put us out of jobs. People will look at the salary and say, 'Hold on. I could have a nanny, but it's not worth me going back to work if I pay this much.''