Remember how I said I needed a wife? I am delighted to announce that I found one. She's part time, and I have to share her, but I couldn't be happier.
Which is all to say that two friends and I are participating in an after school nanny share, and this weekend we hired someone. She will met the girls at their bus stops, give them healthy snacks, help out with homework, take them to after school activities, and even help out with light housework and food prep.
Which means....I will come home to a daughter who is happy, healthy, well cared for, whose primary homework is done. (I'll still do projects etc. with her, but this removes the nightly math worksheets from my routine.) It means that sometimes when I walk in the door, the house will smell of something cooking in the oven, or the salad will be ready and so I can just throw something on the grill. It means no more scrambling to ask friends for childcare favors. It means that I'll get a bit of help with a basket of laundry or vacuuming.
Oh, glory hallelujah! This is the best idea EVER!
To top it all off, I think she might just be Mary Poppins. Fabulous references, very warm, incredibly articulate, college educated and supplementing a job working at a preschool. And the girls, including Katherine, love her, and they think that she's wonderful and can't wait to be with her. And she's an active person involved with social justice and she has healthy habits (non-smoker, likes to eat natural foods, very active) and has so much to offer....and she could even "talk the talk" about American Girl dolls.
Because it's a three-way share, I am only paying $70/month more than I would for the after school program at the community center. She'll only be at my house 1/3 of the time, so only 1/3 of the days will have chore help or food help, but she'll be with Katherine every day (at one of the three houses).
The friends with whom we're doing the share are close in proximity, temperment, relationship. The parents enjoy one another, and the girls enjoy one another.
I'll let my readers know how it works once it really gets going, but I am ecstatic that this looks like it's going to work out. May we live happily ever after!
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