Living: The Child-Care Dilemma

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A private nanny or au pair usually assures a child more individual attention. Professional couples, who must work long hours or travel, often find that such live-in arrangements are the only practical solution, though the cost can exceed $300 a week. However, most live-in sitters in the U.S., unlike the licensed nannies of Britain, have no formal training. Many speak English poorly, and agencies frequently do a cursory job of screening them. A Dallas mother who asked an attorney friend to run a check on her newly hired nanny was told the woman was wanted for writing bad checks. "People need a license to cut your hair but not to care for your child," observes Elaine Claar Campbell, a Chicago investment banker. She and her lawyer-husband Ray, armed with five pages of questions, spent three months interviewing more than 50 people, before settling on Clara Hawkes, 47, an artist from Santa Fe whose own daughter is a National Merit Scholar. "You don't want to gamble with your child," says Ray.

Au pairs, usually European girls between 18 and 25, are less expensive, receiving an average of $100 a week plus room and board. Most stay only a year, and few have legal working papers. The immigration law that took effect this month will make the employers of such workers liable for fines up to $10,000, though the Immigration and Naturalization Service does not plan an aggressive crackdown on domestic help.

Concerns about legality have led more families to hire American au pairs -- frequently teenage girls from the Midwest and often Mormons. "We Mormons come from big families, so we have experience with kids," explains Karen Howell, 19, a Californian who is spending a year with a Washington, D.C., family. "We don't drink, and we know the meaning of hard work." Two agencies -- the Experiment in International Living and the American Institute for Foreign Study -- have Government permission to bring in 3,100 European au pairs a year on cultural-exchange visas. Although the programs are more expensive than traditional au pair arrangements, host families are assured that their helpers are legal.

The professional day-care center is the fastest-growing option for working parents. There are an estimated 60,000 around the country, about half nonprofit and half operated as businesses. Costs vary widely, from $40 a week to as much as $120. In the best centers, children are cared for by dedicated professionals. At the nonprofit Empire State center in Farmingdale, N.Y., teachers make up lesson plans even for infants. Empire, which receives partial funding from New York State, keeps parents closely informed of their child's development. "If a child takes a first step, develops in the least, that parent is called," says Director Ana Fontana.