Political disagreements can strain friendships and family dinners, but that doesn’t mean that they have to ruin your babysitting or nanny gig.
Take it from me; I have first-hand experience in this department.
I was raised in a bubble. My family is blue to the bone and my community was equally liberal. My high school didn’t even have a Young Republicans group. None of my neighbors, or even my friends’ parents, voted red. In fact, I don’t remember ever meeting a single Republican as a kid, other than in passing.
And then, one day, I started working for a family full of right-wing officeholders.
I know it’s not right, but because of this lack of exposure, I always thought of Republicans as the boogeymen. I was raised to see them as the enemy.
As it turned out, the family I came to work for was personable and kind. The parents paid me well, their kids were super cute and I could tell that they respected me. I liked them then, and I still do. We had a great working relationship and, to this day, I am grateful for the experience and the perspective that job gave me.
From these experiences, I developed a few tips that I share with other babysitters who find themselves interviewing with — or even working for –a family with a radically different voting record than their own.
Here they are:
1. Remember: Your Disagreements Are With the Parents, Not the Children
This is, hands down, the most important rule to remember.
In almost every instance, the children you’re being hired to care for are not of voting age. Your political disagreement is not with them, it’s with their parents. If, at any point, you find yourself forgetting that — and your principles are hindering you from caring for the kids — it may be time to look for a different job with a different family.
2. Be Yourself in the Interview
Child care jobs are, by their very nature, intimate. So, too, are politics.
If you know that certain political views are a potential deal breaker for you, I personally think that it’s a good idea to get this all out in the open as soon as possible: namely, by bringing it up in your first interview.
You don’t want to canvass your prospective employer for a campaign donation, but you may want to mention if you recently participated in a march or protest. Are you bothered or heartened by recent political events? Let the family know and see how they react. They may not react well, but better to test the waters now rather than later.
I was honest when I began working for the political family. At one point, I peeled off a bumper sticker from my mother’s car that criticized one of their relatives, purely because I thought that it would needlessly upset the children. But the key is that I never lied about who I was. I told them about my background and that I disagreed with certain policies — but, I also made sure to tell them that I was interested in learning more about their views, too.
3. Ask Yourself: Politics or Not, Is This a Good Job for Me?
This is key, and can’t be overstated. Politics naturally rile people up, but no matter how much you may disagree with the parents’ political views, you need to keep your focus on a much more important issue: your actual job satisfaction.
Ask yourself: politics aside, is this job a good fit for me? Do I get along with the children? And, at the end of the day, do I get along with the parents, too? Is their schedule convenient for me? Does the job pay well?
If there’s already friction between you and your employer, political disagreements may exacerbate an already poor work relationship. But if you decide that the job is fine — or even great — in other ways, you and the parents should be able to handle any political conversations that came up from a vantage point of mutual respect.
Ultimately, it pays to try to be a little open-minded. Not only will you be able to keep a job that otherwise suits you, but you’ll also be able to gain a completely new and fresh perspective on things that you may not have otherwise had!
