College grad relishes role as a nanny

Woman touts work with Beijing family, deflects criticism about career choice

Liu Yu seems to have exactly what it takes to reassure the people she deals with of her competence. She wears a pleasant smile as she speaks in a measured and confident way, even if a little quickly, all of which no doubt helps explain the success of the videos she makes.

In them, online viewers can follow her everyday life and routine as a live-in nanny in Beijing. The fact that Liu has decided to follow such a career path has also helped her advance in her video making, given that it has resulted in a great deal of attention-grabbing controversy.

The 29-year-old is a native of Dongying, Shandong province, and studied music before pursuing further studies in Japan for a year. "I'm not the type who plans their future in detail," she said. "And I'm not obsessed with what others would call stability. I just want to be free."

Liu's story came to public attention recently as a result of a topic on Sina Weibo, the biggest social media platform in China, titled "For five years, a Gen Y overseas graduate has been working as a nanny in Beijing".

Detractors said she was wasting her talents doing household chores. Some, who were more sympathetic, said her monthly salary of more than 10,000 yuan ($1,600) was not to be sneezed at, while others said being a nanny is not what it used to be and requires exactly the kinds of skills Liu possesses.

Posting under the nickname "Nimo", Liu now has more than 200,000 followers.

Her videos are not confined to her job, which she talks about a lot, but extend to her love of snowboarding, her skin care routine and her interest in orthodontics.

She has had several employers over the past five years and now works for a family in Beijing, a couple with a daughter.

Her first duty of the day is to prepare breakfast. Once everyone has eaten, she helps the girl wash her face and dress before driving her to kindergarten. She then returns to the family home to do household chores.

In the afternoon, Liu collects her charge from school and prepares the family dinner. In the evening, she plays the piano and reads the girl stories. Her workday ends at about 8 pm or 9 pm.

"I'm off duty when she is playing with her parents or watching television," Liu said, adding that she is satisfied with her current routine. "At least I feel happy every day."

After returning from Japan in 2016, Liu worked in Beijing as a makeup artist.

"I met my first family employer while I was doing that. She was looking for someone who could speak a foreign language, play an instrument and help her daughter with her homework."

Minding children is a lot harder than most people think, Liu said. Gaining a child's trust is paramount, and being a good time manager is also critical.

"As I take care of the children, the mother has more time to do what she wants to do," she said.

She said that in big cities in particular, parents want quality care and guidance for their children, and the need for highly skilled child minders is likely to grow.

Although Liu is very happy with her job, she said that she kept it a secret from her parents for two years. When she did eventually tell them what she was doing, she made an effort to ensure they did not react badly.

"I talked a lot about the benefits of the job, about how happy it makes me to work with children and about how good the pay is, but I did try to avoid telling them too much about the bad sides," she said.

While her parents were surprised when she told them what she was doing, she said they have come to accept her job and are happy to know she is content.

She includes friends and former classmates among her loyal followers. They encourage her to ignore negative comments people make about her, and to be happy knowing she is doing something she wants to do. Two of the biggest benefits of her job are that she has become a much better cook, and she said that she is more considerate of others than before.

However, having to share another family's home can have its drawbacks. "I am happy enough if I have a very kind employer, and I try to ensure that the boundary between employee and employer is clear," Liu said.