Parenting outsourced

Like a knock-off Mary Poppins, she magically appears with a carpetbag, a pair of spectacles and a slight accent, the way that all child-care providers must in this era of “Nanny 911''.
“Relax,'' she intones calmly. “Nanny's here.''

Nanny is the newest face of outsourced parenting. She arrives not at your doorstep but on your computer screen, as part of NannysCircle.com.

The site, launched recently and originally developed for families with ADHD children, is a web tool that turns household management into a Wii-like experience — remote access and avatar children.

“Give Nanny 20 minutes and she'll give you peace of mind,'' says the beginning of the site's four-minute introduction video.

What follows is a presentation for a brilliant program that appears to allow you to never talk to your child again. For just $9.95 (Dh36) a month!

Have a chore, message or aspirational goal for your child to accomplish? Send him a note via Nanny's parental control panel.

To receive it, your child must simply go to his room, log on to Nanny's Circle on his computer, then go to his virtual room, then log on to his virtual computer, then read the note.

Getting points

After finishing the task, your child checks it off on a virtual chore chart. When you log back on, you confirm the chore was completed with your own check mark, allowing your kid to amass points to decorate his or her room (the virtual one).

Old way: “Madison, did you feed the dog like I asked?'' You see the appeal. It's tidy. Parenting, a messy series of weary battles that never seem to lead anywhere, becomes something that can be checked off and filed. No back talk. Just hit “send''.

It's not a totally new concept. Sites such as Cosi and Fircle have marketed themselves as online family schedulers for several years.

But those sites basically look like digital day planners — online versions of the paper things we already used — meant to be visited but not hung out in.

Nanny's Circle is built for lounging: children's rooms on the site come equipped with televisions, journals and trunks full of games.

And, of course, that computer, which makes a visitor feel like he is in not Second Life but Third Life, in an online world in an online world.

Members seem to love it. Karen Brieant, a mum in Camillus, New York, signed up her daughter Lauren, 13, while leaving Lauren's twin brother Nanny-free so she'd have a baseline for the program's success.

“The idea was, let's get more organised so you can do chores without us talking about it,'' Brieant says.