A Extra Helping Hand for Moms!

I was just telling my husband last week that it would be nice to have an extra hand sometimes. I was thinking it would be nice to have someone get dinner ready, clean up after dinner, wash dishes, and get the bath ready for my son. I have a newborn and a toddler and it is hard with a newborn, who always wants to be in my arms, to get things done around the house. The evenings always seem to be the busiest and the next thing I know it is 11pm and I have not had anytime to my self.

My vote would be laundry and change my bedding. This seems to take up my most valuable moments of each day. The next would be someone to help plan healthy, low-fat but edible, inexpensive, menus to prepare for my family. I am doing a terrible job at planning healthy menus that my family will eat.

I think if a helping hand person could come in on a regular schedule for, like, 1-1.5 hours a week and help the kids get their chores done, it would be a HUGE help to me. My kids are great at being independent, but sometimes they just need to be supervised to make sure they're staying on track. Plus, if they had like 3 chores to do, a helping hand person could be the "go to" person as each chore is finished to make sure the next one gets started. I tell ya, it's a huge endeavor when I am trying to get my own chores done and I have to answer 6 different times, "Mom, what am I supposed to do next???" PLUS a helping hand person could keep them occupied with an activity until it is time for her to leave. I would hope that a helping hand person would be an adult, because I think adults just have a better eye at how household jobs should be completed.

I would love for someone to come in and do ALL my laundry!

I think the least they could do would be folding laundry, putting away dishes vacumming. Cleaning up after a meal the kids and kitchen so we could move on the the next thing fast. And I love the sitting in the car while you run in to do stuff and putting on shoes.

Someone to iron for me! I like to iron clothes for myself and my kids for the whole week, eliminating "What and I going to wear!?" but it takes up darn near a whole day! Also, someone to help with the little things that tend to get brushed aside, like dusting. It needs to be done, but its what gets forgotten when I have better things to do (like spend time with kids!) Its the little things we don't think about that we need the most help with.

Cleaning, laundry, babysitting, grocery shopping, meal prep.

I think mine would be someone to come in and clean my floors for me. That & dusting are two things I never seem able to find time to do.

Where do I start! I have a 2 year old and a 2 month old and I work full time so my house is either a wreck and I get to spend time with my little boys OR it's immacculate and I neglect them. I tend to go for the former. :)

1. Grocery Shopping
2. Meal Planning (meals my family actually likes!)
3. Meal Prep
4. Laundry
5. Organization
6. Light Cleaning

Those would be my big ones, but of course if I lived in my dream world that list would be MUCH longer.

I just had this conversation with a friend of mine who is also a working mother of two. We would love for someone to pick up the kids from school, homework, cook healthy meals, cleaning such as dusting and mopping, laundry and picking up. These are in order of preference since I should be getting the kids involved in the latter two. If I could find such a service that is affordable, I would jump at it.

Well I can answer your question from both perspectives. I worked as a nanny and personal assistant (while doing photography evenings and weekends) for 17 years until I retired (just photography now) to start my own family 3 years ago.

There are several things to consider. do any of your kids need a nanny or are they all in school? If you are going to hire someone to help out it would be more cost effective for you to utilize a nanny instead of paying for daycare as well as an assistant. Also your child would get wonderful one on one attention during the day.

In 1 particular job of mine I was a nanny for 2 young boys. I would generally pick up through out the day (mostly clean up after ourselves). Do some laundry, sweep, vacuum, clean the bathroom once a week etc. Nothing major. My main focus was the boys. When mom came home, she came home to a picked up house, clean laundry and happy well rested boys. I would take the boys on outings in the morning and then clean in the afternoon.

If your kids are school age you might consider having someone run your errands. Do grocery shopping, dry cleaning, post office etc then pick up the kids from school and start dinner. That way when you are off work you don't have to spend more time away from the house doing errands.

Why don't you call me and I would be happy to discuss with you what would be appropriate to expect from your help and what would be a fair price to pay for such services. I can also referr you to placement services. ###-###-####

I love staying home and doing almost everything! I agree with the mom who said someone to help watch the kids at the park. That would be a great help. The only other thing I really get tired of doing is cleaning my kitchen floor. I have two little boys and I spend a great deal of time sweeping crumbs and mopping.

I am not sure what exactly you are asking when you say:

"...what women moms like me would want if they had someone to help around the home to get things done."

Are you asking because you may want help .... or that you want to see if that is something you want to do for extra income?

I did see a documentary about health care and found out that in France, they "give" you a nanny to come in once a week for 6 hours I think so you can do what you need to do (errands, me-time, visit your ailing mom, etc. I know I would love it and my daughter would love it if affordable. that's the key.

But if you're saying that you are asking what could help if the mom is there, then I would have wanted a list of things you are willing to help with and I guess I'd hope that it could range from playing with the kids so I could get something done, picking up items needed at a store (because perhaps I'm not feeling well or have had an injury), doing housework because I have to help my child with homework, helping my child with homework because I'm having to do a work project, reading to them so they benefit and I get to soak in a hot tub to de-stress over something, etc.

house cleaning and meal preparation and laundry are the biggest things that take up my time. my husband is a youth minister and sometimes i have youth with me when i am running errands and such. they help by staying in the car so i can run in somewhere real quick, watching the baby while i take the toddler to the restroom, packing the diaper bag and putting shoes on kids when we are getting ready to go. it just kinda helps me be in two places at once.

Organizing closets & drawers in the spring and winter! Customized meal planning with the shopping list ready. I say customized, b/c I want to try new ways of fixing dinners with the things I already know my kids and husband like.

cooking and cleaning:)

Great question! I can think of several things.

I often hire high school students to come help me with my chores. Most often they come and just fold all my backed up laundry, but I have asked them before to clean the bathrooms or sweep and wash the floors (we have hardwood/tile floors, no carpet).

Another thing I would LOVE would be grocery delivery. I don't mind doing weekly grocery shopping for the special stuff that I need for meals that week, but it seems like I ALWAYS need milk, eggs, cheese, etc. If we had milk delivery I would sign up in a heartbeat.

Also picnic dinners would be nice. Sometimes we just want to skip the big dinner and cleanup and take the kids to the pool or something in the evening, but to pick up something quick our options are pretty limited to fast food.

This is a good question. We have a newborn 12-day old, and what my wife and I could use is a "sleep sitter" - someone to watch our baby for one of 3-hour periods between feedings so that we can get some sleep and sleep together like we used to as husband and wife, if only for a few hours. In reading the other responders, it sounds like a personal baby assistant is needed to do just about anything, much like these celebrities have their own personal assistants at their beck and call. I think the trick for you is finding the right per hour charge that is feasible for you but still considered affordable from the Mama's. I would start by being competive with cleaning services - it's easy enough to find out what they charge. You can clean too, but offer so much more.

When the boys were smaller it was almost impossible to go to the park with them. A helper would have been great at that point, just to keep an eye out. I also had a lot of trouble getting to the store---would go on the weekend only, or when I got a sitter to stay at home with them. I'd love to have 2-3 hours each week to go run those quickie errands, and someone to just stay here and play with them. They're fun now-and they love to play.

My biggest is laundry. I just cant seem to keep it done. I have 2 girls 8 & 4 and I work full time. If I could find someone affordable to just come in once a week and do laundry and some really light housecleaning my stress would be cut in half. Oh and we have 2 dogs also. But everywhere I look for someone to do this Its more than I can afford. I dont need a full on housecleaner and thats what is out there. The cheapest I have found was $75 a week for cleaning, this didn't include laundry.

So if I had my dream it would be for this.

#1 for me would be going to the grocery store to buy the weekly groceries but also going to pharmacy, dry cleaners, etc. I take it that you are not asking about housework so no suggestions there. #2 would be if I was taking the kids somewhere help me get them organized & ready to go. #3 Help me go over homework assignments & teacher/school notes to mark my calendar and make sure I didn't forget or overlook an event/assignment and kids weren't able to slip homework past me that didn't get done. #4 Supervise them while they play outside or take them somewhere (library, rec center, park) while I could fix dinner or take a relaxing bath & get dolled up before Hubby gets home.