Entre o cuidado como profissão e o cuidado como obrigação : uma análise a partir de relatos de vida de babás que são mães de crianças pequenas em Belo Horizonte e Região Metropolitana

Abstract

The objective of this work is to analyze how the care of young children permeates the lives of women who, in addition to working as nannies, are mothers of young children themselves. I aim to delve into their specific situation, using an ethnosociological research approach and drawing on life stories from six women working as nannies in Belo Horizonte (or its Metropolitan Region), each of whom has at least one child under the age of ten. To support the analysis, I draw on theoretical debates regarding the elements that constitute care relationships and highlight the specificities of caring for young children. Additionally, I discuss care as an obligation, a profession, and assistance, delving into the social, historical, and political dimensions that shape these relationships. The collected narratives reaffirm the multiplicity of female experiences in relation to motherhood and are permeated by efforts to avoid replicating the violence and lack they experienced in their own childhoods. Unplanned pregnancies mark the experiences of these women, who rely on predominantly female support networks, often with the presence of their own mothers, to care for their children. The absence of biological fathers is the norm, and daycare centers play an important role in enabling these women to return to the job market. Exhausting routines coexist with concerns about ensuring their children's livelihoods and with the violences they may face. The financial condition of the narrators and their lack of free time are fundamental barriers to achieving the idealized care they envision. It is a recurring perception that they take better care of their employers' children than their own, and feelings of guilt are common, attesting to the enduring influence of hegemonic ideals of motherhood and femininity. For most of the narrators, working as a nanny is seen as the only option for their livelihood, while for one of them, it is a means to achieve her ultimate goal of living abroad. It is part of these workers' role to meet the various needs of the children, but more important than meeting these needs is the way in which they do so. Disagreements between the nanny and the child's family regarding what is deemed appropriate are the main source of tension in the employee-employer relationship. The ambiguity of care work is evident in the narrators' accounts: when they engage in paid caregiving as nannies, their affection for the children and, at times, for their employers coexist with unfair working conditions, instances of disrespect, violence, exhaustion, and the insensitivity of some employers toward the workers' children's urgent needs, with consequences for their personal lives and motherhood. When they care without remuneration, as mothers, ambivalences arise as affection for their children and the desire to study and achieve better professional positions, as examples for their children, coexist with guilt, exhaustion, unwanted changes in life plans, increased financial needs to support others, potential mental health issues, and the suppression of personal desires to fulfill their caregiving responsibilities.