While in college seeking her degree in Chinese history, Lu began working as an administrative assistant at a trading company that sold air conditioners, refrigerators, and other home appliances. She continued after graduation, staying at the company a total of seven years. But after the birth of her second child in 1979, she quit and focused on raising her kids. Today, her son is sixteen, her daughter fifteen. Her husband is a legal consultant at an insurance firm.
After nine years of homemaking, Lu started baby-sitting in order to bring in extra money for the family. Until this year, her charges lived at her home through the six-day workweek—parents dropped them off Monday morning and picked them up Saturday afternoon. Many sitters work under this arrangement, hired by double-income couples who don't have time to fight traffic to and from the sitter's every day. Lu's current family picks up their children at night, leaving her evenings free for the first time in six years.
I began as a baby sitter in 1988. At the time, we had just bought this apartment for three million [US$115,400]. My husband and I made a down payment of one million and got a loan of two million from the bank. We needed money. And around that time, a friend of mine asked me if I'd like to take over her baby-sitting job. That's how I started this job.
Since I started baby-sitting, I've taken care of six children, one after another, besides my own two. The first one I baby-sat is now seven years old. Sometimes I baby-sit one, sometimes two. The maximum is three. That's all I can handle. A full-time baby sitter never takes care of only one child. Some people baby-sit five children. That's too many for me. I don't know how they can handle them. If their husbands help a little, they probably can handle it. My husband rarely helps me.
Now I only baby-sit during the day. Take the two brothers I take care of now. The older is three and the younger is one. Their mother brings them to my place every morning at eight and picks them up around seven at night. I earn twenty-seven thousand [US$1,000] a month.
I like children—they're pure and innocent. They bring me joy and happiness. They keep me company. You know, all children are very cute. You teach them to sing songs, and they'll sing for you. When my husband and kids are away at work and at school during the day, the children keep me company. It's easy to be with them. I just feed them and change diapers. That's all. I always have a good time with them. I prefer to baby-sit children who are only a few months old. They are just like your own kids except for the nine-month period in their mother's womb. You set their daily habits. It's easy to get along with these kids. If a child is already two or three years old, he has his own opinions. He won't listen to you. I think most baby sitters prefer taking care of children when they're still babies.
One thing I don't like about baby-sitting is once you build up a relationship with a child, he leaves you. For example, they get old enough to go to preschool, or their grandmother or aunt wants to watch them. It's frustrating when this happens. I can't do anything about it. I don't have any control over it. I'm hired by the kid's parents. I don't have any choice.
I never refuse to baby-sit any child either. I'm not used to saying no to people. Generally, I like my job. The kids are cute. Their parents are easy to communicate with. Most of the time, the fathers are not involved with their children's day-to-day lives. It's the mothers who contact me. They're all working women and very reasonable. It's easy to communicate with them. If one of them needs help, she lets me know beforehand and asks whether I can help her. We respect each other.
There was one mother I had a hard time working with. She was so dominant and bossy! She treated me like a maid. She always considered herself first priority. Saturday afternoon and Sunday are my days off, but whenever she was busy and asked me to work extra hours, I had to say yes. If I told her I couldn't, she'd get angry. She thought only her time was important, my time was nothing.
Another mother said I'm too nice to the kids. They're all my little darlings. I just can't say no to them. I never physically punish them. Kids are naturally happy. They just eat, sleep, and play. They are all little kids, younger than three. I don't pressure or teach them. They'll have a lot of learning to do in the future. When they go home, their parents will teach them. Later when they go to school, their teachers will teach them. Baby sitters don't have to teach anything. Kids are smart. They learn naturally.
Since the last child I baby-sat started preschool, I don't baby-sit overnight. I can't take it, physically. I have a lot of housework like cooking meals, washing clothes, and scrubbing the floor. I scrub the floor every day, on my hands and knees. Our floor tile is white—if I don't clean it frequently, it gets dirty. My own children have grown up, too. They don't want me to baby-sit overnight. They need a quiet environment to study in. My husband doesn't want me to work overnight either. I never complain about it affecting my personal life—this is my job—but frankly, baby-sitting overnight leaves me no private life.
Now I work eleven hours a day, from eight o'clock in the morning to seven at night. When the brothers leave at night, I'm really tired. But, I don't know.... I might change my mind later. Maybe a friend will ask me to baby-sit her kids overnight and I'll say yes again. I'm really not used to saying no to people.
—interview by Yvonne Yuan