Dear LFTP: hiring an undocumented nanny off the books

• Is it acceptable to hire an undocumented babysitter off the books when on-the-books nannies are too expensive?

A listener writes that she's going back to work and needs a babysitter; the moms she knows all hire undocumented women off the books, and she worries about getting in trouble, while on-the-books nannies are sky high. The Secular persona answers that it's true many families, including in New York City, employ undocumented childcare workers as part of the US economy, but it isn't legal — she should hire someone who files with the IRS and pays taxes. The hosts agree she should go the legal route, and push back that her question misses the point: nothing in it is about what's best for her child. They share childcare vetting stories — a daycare lady with a breakable porcelain cat on the table ('you're not a daycare'), and a woman whose house left a child crying by the stairs for months without mentioning it, after which the host's wife quit her job that day — arguing you must know who watches your kids 'real well,' preferably someone you already know.