Nanny/Family Assistant needed for wonderful family!!! this is their ad!!!
Hi! We need a fun-loving, caring, responsible, self-directed person to fit into our family and help us with childcare and getting ourselves more organized. We have a son who will be five in September and a son who was two in March. Being silly and creative is important to us, but so is structure and management. We want someone who is willing to do childcare, help with healthy cooking/meal prep and some cleaning/help around the house. In addition, we want to include the idea of a family assistant to help us get organized and tasks completed. This person must be extremely comfortable driving children and extremely comfortable swimming with children.
The older son will be in school M-F, 9-2. The younger son will be in school Tuesday and Thursday mornings from 9-12. When children are at school, we want help with organizing the children’s toys, planning activities/crafts for when they return, healthy meal prep/cooking for everyone (not all meals, and not all the time) preparing healthy snacks/meals for just the boys, laundry for the boys. When there is time, other home organizing or general errands like grocery shopping would be the focus, but boys are first priority. As the boys get older and are in school more, the role would focus more on being a family assistant. We see this as a long term position and would like to find someone who would be interested in being with us for many years.
We are a smoke free/pet-free home. Our nanny must be a non-smoker as well as fully vaccinated against Covid. One member of the family is extremely allergic to cats.
We are based in Norfolk, Virginia, but spend time near Charlottesville and Edinburgh, Scotland, so we want someone who is willing to travel and come places with us as necessary. Ideally, once Covid is more controlled, we would like someone who could travel around the world with us. So we see this as a potential long term position. We would prefer someone who has a background in childhood education and could provide educational experiences for both of our boys. My husband is in ed-tech, and so travel around the world would be both work related and personal.
Education is important to us, but we want it to be fun. We don’t want just numbers and literacy, but weaving age appropriate skills into exploring the world around us. Due to Covid and concerns for the health of immediate family members, the boys were not in a pre-school this past year (2020-2021). The older son did attend a pre-K 2 program and a Pre-K 3 program until it closed in March 2020. We are concerned that depending on how the winter goes, the school will close again. If that happens, we would want this person to be in charge of education. We are not interested in having our five year old sit in front of a screen for a zoom lesson, so we would want a more hands on approach from our nanny. If the focus became education, we would not expect them to be able to maintain a high level of education as well as more home focused tasks. So we would all adjust expectations as necessary.
A little more about the travel plans:
Once the world is safer to travel and Covid has been further contained, we plan to travel around the world. We see the ability to travel as an opportunity to educate our boys in a different way as we experience new places and cultures. We would take the boys out of school for that extended time period and so would want them to keep on par academically with their peers, but have an education attuned to exploring the world. We want a partner in educating our two sons as well as someone who enjoys traveling and is up for some adventures. We would want our nanny, once comfortable, to feel like part of our family.
Due to the transient nature of our plans, we would need someone who is flexible and willing to live with us, as necessary. Ideally she would have her own place in Norfolk and then live with us when traveling. All travel expenses and food when with us would be covered. She would always have her own separate room to stay in while we’re traveling (we usually book Air BnBs).
Day hours: 8 hours/day; could be split into different time chunks depending on schedule (for example do “school” in the morning for two hours and then have an hour break and then be with kids again.)
Education Focus:
• Age/skill appropriate planned daily lessons (as required based on school closure or future travel)
◦ We are happy to purchase materials/curriculum as needed
◦ When traveling, want to continue lessons and tie into local area
◦ Use outdoors for education
◦ Be active and engage boys in physical activity
◦ Support mental/personal growth and well being
◦ Inspire curiosity and engagement in learning
Nanny Focus:
• Help with childcare during the day
• Help facilitate world travel with two young children
• Help pack/prepare for trips and unpack upon return
• Willing to help clean/tidy house and get/teach children to clean up after themselves (you won’t be scrubbing toilets/floors–but we want someone who takes initiative to improve what’s around them like empty dishwasher if it’s full, clean up after preparing food for the boys, etc)
• In charge of laundry for boys
• Willing to help with meal prep/cooking–mostly for the kids, but also some family meals
◦ Our boys like to help in the kitchen, so you must enjoy the chaos of cooking with kids!
• If there is extra time, we would love help organizing rest of house as needed, but boys are first priority
Family Assistant Focus:
• Help with daily running of the house
◦ Organize home improvements as necessary
◦ Help with meal planning/groceries
◦ Help keep house organized
▪ Create better system and maintain it for Kitchen drawers, pantry, boys’ toys, books, clothes and art materials
◦ Anticipate family needs
Must:
• Be fully vaccinated
• Be a non-smoker
• Have a passport
• Have experience working with young children
• Have experience traveling
• Be flexible in terms of plans and traveling while working
