Last summer, 32-year-old junior-high math teacher Qiumin (not her real name) gave birth to her bouncing baby boy Xiao Yan. Planning to get back to work after the birth, she had been racking her brains over who to entrust the care of her child to since first getting pregnant.

"My parents live all the way down in Pingtung County, and while my in-laws were happy to help, I was hesitant to take them up on the offer because of the friction differences in childcare philosophy might cause. So after a lot of thought, I decided to find a nanny in the neighborhood," says Qiumin.

Must love children

Qiumin, who lives in Taipei City's Neihu District, originally wanted to go through a community network agent to find a licensed nanny. However, after being dissatisfied with the few she'd seen, with encouragement from her husband she decided to go with a traditional, unlicensed nanny recommended by a neighbor. This couple, whose jobs so demand logic, efficiency, and empirical data, ended up with their friends making fun of them suddenly not being as picky as they'd expected with their nanny selection.

To this Qiumin responds, "We spent a lot of time looking, and in the end we felt that the most crucial things to have in a nanny were a kind heart, patience, and a genuine love of children. That's much more important to us than any license."

The nannies Qiumin and her husband settled on are a husband and wife of about 60 whose own children have grown up, and who wanted to look after children to have some company and pass the time. Being motivated by wanting to keep looking after children as "substitute grandchildren" has made them especially doting toward Xiao Yan, and they even buy clothes and toys for him out of their own pockets.

Qiumin says that she initially found it hard to accept that when Xiao Yan would have days where he would just cry and cry, the couple would take him to a temple to be "cleansed." But eventually she found out that the temple in question was the respected and respectable Xingtian Gong rather than some little neighborhood shrine, so she sucked it up and decided not to interfere. "Xiao Yan gets along with them really well too, almost like they're his actual grandparents. Seeing how they all interact has really put my mind at ease," she says.

Licenses aren't top priority

And there are many others of like mind with Qiumin. According to interviews the Child Welfare League Foundation conducted with 1,081 mothers in 2008, when looking for nannies, parents' primary consideration-as chosen by 29.8% of respondents-is flexibility (including flexibility in drop-off and pick-up, reasonable prices, and the ability to postpone pickup in the event of parents needing to work overtime), with the second, at 28.6%, being the nanny's personality (including how caring, patient, and healthy they are, and how much they love children). In contrast, those who look for a license, relevant degree, or membership of the community network, accounted for only 18.1% of those interviewed.

CWLF chief executive Wang Yumin explains that to many parents, licenses and networks are of little concern. Part of the problem is a lack of public awareness, but the other reveals the main weakness of the licensing system-that while the examinations can test professional skill, they can't test how loving, patient, or good to children a nanny is.

For example, says Wang, parents have complained that licensed nannies "feel too 'professional,'" mostly because of their adherence to contracts and business matters, charging "overtime" if parents are even just a half-hour late picking up their children.

Is testing the only way?

But despite traditional nannies with their excellent reputations being the market leaders, in April 2008 the government began a childcare subsidy program that offers NT$3,000 a month to parents that hire nannies that are part of the community network. Additionally, the Legislative Yuan is reviewing the draft Child Care and Education Act, which will require all nannies to obtain certification within a given period, but will also put traditional nannies under even more pressure than they already are.

Li Minglan is a traditional nanny with 16 years' experience who is currently looking after two two-year-old boys. She says that she went for nannying classes with the Chinese Children's Fund Taiwan (now the Taiwan Fund for Children and Families) in 1985, but was unable to get her certification because of her heavy workload looking after children.

"But in the past couple of years, whenever parents hear I don't have a license, they just say 'We'll be in touch,'" and hang up. It's almost like they don't care that I have over 10 years of experience and testimonials. It feels like I'm being discriminated against for not having a license," she sighs.

Mama Wu, with almost 20 years' experience looking after children, is in a similar situation. She has considered getting a license, but with only an elementary-school education, she doesn't meet the requirements.

Mr. Wu, who often helps his wife out with her nannying, is well aware of her passion for her work, and has taken it upon himself to set out and get training and a license to help her out.

But the 53-year-old Mr. Wu admits that doing so is no mean feat for someone his age, especially the skills tests like bathing and food preparation. These tests include complex processes and must be completed within 20 minutes without the slightest mistake.

"Dicing carrots, part of the food preparation, requires us to chop the carrots into exactly 0.5-centimeter cubes, and I've never been much good around the kitchen. No matter how much I practice I still can't quite get it right, and both times I've sat the test I've tripped at that particular hurdle." With some disappointment, Mr. Wu says he is preparing to try a third time in September, and if he can't pass this time, he will most likely call it a day.

A lifeline for traditional nannies

Faced with so many traditional nannies struggling with certification, long-time child welfare advocate Wang Yumin says, "The love, patience, and years of experience of these traditional nannies shouldn't just be cast aside for want of one little piece of paper." As she explains, the CWLF has recently put forward its own, more grassroots version of the Child Care and Education Act, for the government's consideration. This would provide two tracks for nannies, one offering licensing, the other registration, with practicing traditional nannies only having to register with county or city governments and accept regular inspections and on-the-job training to gain a certification equivalent to a license.

"There are plenty of nannies who are great at looking after children, but not so much at taking tests, and they have just as much of a right to work as anyone else," Wang says.

For all those new parents working hard to provide for their children, finding a suitable nanny to take care of their babies can be difficult. Both experienced traditional nannies and professional licensed ones can, in their own ways, provide children with a way to grow up in a happy, healthy environment, and the government must think long and hard about how it will proceed from here.