Jude Law might have saved his blushes if he had employed a 'manny' instead of a nanny, says JO HAYWOOD.

MARY Poppins would have been a very different film if Dick Van Dyke had been cast as the nanny.

We would have been saved from that 'cor blimey, guvner' mockney accent for a start.

But would the children have been any worse off if Mark Poppins and not Mary had administered their spoonful of sugar?

Actor Jude Law, who was caught spooning with his children's nanny last week, would probably now opt for a male nanny to keep temptation at bay. And he is not alone.

Male nannies, or 'mannies', are becoming increasingly popular with parents in London and the United States looking for a positive male role model for their children.

There is a dedicated website - www.themanny.com - revealing everything you ever wanted to know about manly nannies but were afraid to ask.

And Norland College, the UK's most exclusive nanny school, has accepted its first male trainees.

But what about closer to home - are North Yorkshire parents mad about mannies?

Unfortunately not, according to Caroline Lee of Caroline Lee Nanny Agency in Alexander Avenue, York.

"I trained with a man and he ran rings round all of us," she said. "He was named Student Of The Year, and he still couldn't get a job. I think he ended up going into child psychology."

About half her clients have no problem with male nannies, although they haven't requested one themselves, while the others are firmly against them. "If the situation was reversed and a woman couldn't get work because she was a woman, there would be uproar," she said. "It's just not fair.

"I think male nannies can be a very good influence, particularly if the client is a single mother or if the dad works long hours.

"I once worked for a single mother whose son absolutely doted on my husband. He was desperate for male attention."

Denise Wells, managing director of York Helpers in Bootham, York, painted a similar picture.

"We get quite a few male nannies coming in looking for work, but it's very difficult to place them with a family," she said.

"I really don't know why people have a problem with it.

"The men we have seen have been just as qualified, and in some cases more so, than women going for the same jobs.

"Some people distrust their motives, but their motives are just the same as women's. They love working with children."

Ebor Nannies in Dike Ray Close, Haxby, has not registered a manny to date, but it has placed quite a few male au pairs.

"Nannies tend to look after younger children, usually up to the age of about four, and parents still automatically assume this is a job for a woman," said company director Jane Pick.

"Au pairs tend to be employed to help with children who are a bit older, usually four to 15.

"A family with boys often prefers a male au pair because they can play football and do all the usual rough-and-tumble things that boys like."

This doesn't mean, however, that she thinks men should dump their dreams of becoming a nanny.

"Anyone who thinks men can't make good nannies obviously has a very narrow view," she added. "If a boy wants to be a nanny when he grows up, what on earth is wrong with that?"

Updated: 09:43 Tuesday, July 26, 2005