Tuesday, August 31, 2010

Nepalese nannies

I have recently been struck all over again by the reasoning abilities of young children – those aged between about three & five. This has come just from random bits of overheards, not proud parental or grandparental satisfaction at having a genius in the family.

But it has led me to wonder why so many people say they have no memory of anything that happened to them at these ages – if memory is not linked to the ability to reason, then where does it come from?

If I try to analyse my own memories they do seem to be linked more to emotional reactions – whether simple surprise, pleasure & delight, or darker ones such as worry & fear.

The Cameron children ought to have plenty of memories of the past few months, what with daddy getting to be prime minister & the move to Downing Street; then to cap it all they go on holiday to Cornwall & get a baby sister who, as said a Times leader no less, earned a mention in the history books as soon as she was born. Myself I think all this coverage is a bit much – especially that photo of daddy nose-to-nose with his darling. Of course it is a very nice picture, but surely one that is too private to be gawped at in the press.

The coverage did however provide one very intriguing tidbit – the Cameron’s have a Nepalese nanny who has been ‘with them for years’ according to a seemingly well informed Alice Thomson, also in The Times.

Then on Saturday the paper carried an article about French families desperately seeking English-speaking nannies or au pairs for their children, since an ability to speak & understand the language is essential in today’s world. One family who failed in the search settled for a Nepalese au pair instead.

Good gracious! Is this the new must-have for the status-conscious family throughout the EC? A quick Google confirms that this appears to be so. How, why have Nepalese women acquired such a status & reputation? Has it got anything to do with the gurkhas?


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