Advice for finding extra household help/childcare
Looking for advice/examples of what worked for your families
We just became a family of 4–2 parents and 2 children and will soon enter a phase with 2 parents working full time and 2 kids in childcare/school. I think we will need extra help in the evenings with cooking/cleaning as well as occasional childcare due to work travel.
What type of service/help should I be looking for? Have people had success hiring 1 person to help with both household and child care tasks? What did you ask for?
Thanks so much
Aug 20, 2024
Parent Replies
I haven't had any experience with au pairs, which came to mind as perhaps the type of role you're looking for. What occurred to me that was helpful when we had two very small kids was a weekly house cleaner. When we had two preschooler-ish age kids, we had one of the meal prep box subscriptions, which also worked ok and the kids thought was fun. I do think the blend of housework and childcare is kind of tricky, it's hard to find one person who is willing to clean toilets and good with your children when they're fussy. I'd say start with the weekly housecleaner (and be prepared with a very clear list of what you want done in each visit before you finalize the rate) and really simplify your evening meals, whether with a subscription box or a delivery service or just Trader Joe's freezer meals every night. Then if needed add in an afternoon/evening babysitter.
How old are the kids? If you have a baby, I'd recommend looking for a nanny on the Childcare listing who wants extra hours in the evenings. If you don't have a baby, look in to hiring an au pair who can help out in the evenings. Do hire a housekeeper once a week and also research meal delivery services - there are a lot of suggestions on the BPN website. Good luck. You can do it!
We are a similar family of four with two working parents and two young kids. I recommend thinking about how much support you need. If you can commit to a set schedule and a consistent number of hours each week, you could find a single person to help regularly in the evenings. However, if your needs are more sporadic, developing a roster of go-to babysitters who can assist with childcare as needed, especially for work travel might be a better option for you. Platforms like UrbanSitter, BPN, or NextDoor can be helpful in finding someone who fits your needs—I’ve personally had the most success with UrbanSitter.
In my experience, I found it challenging to find one person who can handle cooking, cleaning, and childcare, so you might consider dividing up these tasks, as others have suggested. A meal delivery service or simple crock-pot recipes might be a good option if your helper has limited cooking skills. You could have the same person handle light household tasks like dishes, laundry, and tidying up while also helping with the kids in the evening. For more intensive cleaning, hiring a cleaning person once or twice a month could be effective.
We struggled to find people with evening availability, so we switched to having someone come in mid-morning (around 9:30 a.m.). We were able to hire au pairs with a complementary schedule—they did kid drop-offs in the morning and had free time in the middle of the day before they needed to go pick up the kids again. They helped with dishes, laundry, and general tidying up, and light meal prep which freed up our evenings to be more hands-on with the kids. We gave up on making dinner at dinner time and did batch meal prep on weekends. This is not exactly the situation you describe, but it is where we ended up given the various constraints we found along the way.
Please feel free to reach out if you’d like more details on what worked and what didn’t for our family. Good luck!