Mothers Helpers

My son just started looking for a job like this. I think it would be perfect for a new Mom with a toddler at home that needed to be occupied. They play with your child, make little snacks, all with you being home to ask questions of if needed. I think a preteen could do it perfectly, as long as it was a responsible person, after all, you are in the home...

A "mother's helper" is usually someone young. Otherwise, you are talking about a babysitter or nanny.

Yes, I have used a Mother's Helper and was one in middle school. In my experience, this is something you do before you are old enough to babysit without an adult present. I have used our neighbor's son (7th grade) and it works out really well!

We pay him $5 an hour and his job is to entertain my son so that we can get some projects done in the house or in the yard. We are home during that time and he is not responsible for any cooking. If he's there during lunch or snack, it's premade (for both of them) and in the fridge ready to go. He's at our house for 2 hours or so at a time. It's amazing how much of my basement can get cleaned out and how much mulch we can put down when we know we have 2 or 3 (at the most) hours to ourselves!

I wouldn't think a college student or grandmother would be very INTERESTED in being a mother's helper. In my mind, that's mostly a job for a young teen... if you need an adult to do it, that's more of a nanny or a housekeeper in my mind.

When I was in middle and high school I helped out the same neighborhood families I babysat for. I would help with the afternoon stuff after school or come over if mom was getting ready to host a dinner party, or had to get work done etc. Basically the role is like that of a responsible older child for a family that doesn't have one.

Entertain little kids while mom get's stuff done.
Make, serve and clean up snacks.
Help little kids with homework (if they're in school).
Help kids clean their rooms.

That kind of stuff.

Given the age groups you mentioned, I'm wondering if you don't mean like a light housekeeper? If you aren't looking for a babysitter, you may want to phrase it differently as you search, because most people will think you mean that.

HTH
T.

A coworker of mine uses one because her husband is writing his PhD thesis at home and they have an infant. The parent helper is a college student, which they found on a college list serve, because they really leave her unattended with the baby (the father is upstairs in the office working) and they wanted to make sure that it was someone who would be competent with an infant. They pay her $8/hour and she is responsible for feeding him, playing with him when he's awake and putting him down for naps. She works at their house about 4 hours a day, 5 days a week. It works out well for her because they work around her course schedule and she gets school work done during the baby's naps. If your children are older I'm not sure why you would want to go with someone older because you need to pay them more (even though it's not as much as an actual babysitter).