In May of 2012 former nanny and now agency owner Annemarie saw an article in The Australian newspaper that was unfairly and inaccurately critical of nannies. She tweeted the article with the following comment:

“Just read this article and I’m fuming.”

The tweet was seen by Tracey, a nanny, who after reading the article was just as outraged as Annemarie was and fired back with:

“Hmmmm, we might need to set them straight about a few things.”

The article in question had claimed that extending the childcare rebate to nannies would put children in the care of unqualified babysitters, place them at risk, and see them well behind their peers. The article went on to claim that nannies have no childcare qualifications, or are only trained to babysit, unlike childcare centre staff.

Tracey wrote to the journalist who had authored the story to set her straight and defend the many great nannies working in Australia. She asked for a right of reply in another article to address the false claims about nannies and the resulting article defending nannies appeared in that weekend’s newspaper.

Meanwhile, Annemarie and Tracey were discussing where to go from there and the idea of the ANA was conceived.

“It would be great to get some more nannies involved in backing up our industry.”

“Yes, and more agencies. Need a representative group or something.”

This was the beginning of the Australian Nanny Association, with the founding members Tracey McDermott, Annemarie Sansom, Amanda McGill,Lisa Miatke, and Danielle Robertson.