ANN ARBOR, MI (LOCAL CANDIDATES PREFERRED)- Wonderful family seeks a FULL-TIME NANNY/FAMILY ASSISTANT to bring organization and order to their home, as well as assist with their two neurodivergent, autistic children, ages 15-year-old (girl) and 12 years (boy). The hours are from noon-8pm Monday-Friday during the school year. They can be flexible with hours but want the nanny to be home for a few hours while the kids are in school to help with home organization, meal planning, meal prep, and sitting down to have dinner with the family. “Cooking”, “cleaning” and “laundry” responsibilities would be more about planning and organization than about executing those tasks such as meal planning and prepping, although they happily accept help in any of these areas! When the kids are home from school, they would look to the nanny to assist with homework, help the kids do their chores, and be a buffer and backup for the parents. Someone who can demonstrate how to be organized and keep track of tasks so that the children can learn by example.
The family seeks a nanny who is excited to create order from chaos, who loves checking things off of a to-do list and will be patient and kind enough to help two adults and two kids who are not good at those things. Beyond childcare, they need help with everything from meal planning to Marie Kondo-ing household items, to scheduling maintenance tasks around the house, to running errands, to organizing the kitchen and pottery studio, and keeping houseplants alive. They also have 2 dogs (one medium, the other small), 3 cats, and a frog who require occasional care.
They are a queer family with one transparent and their children are still finding out who they are. Thus, they seek a nanny who is more than just “accepting.” Someone who holds anti-LGBTQ+ views will not be a good candidate for this position. One parent works from home in a dedicated office space and the other is a stay-at-home parent who needs help balancing kids and bringing order to their home and lives.
The children are wonderful humans but can be challenging at times. They are both bright, funny, interesting people. They are also both autistic, and sometimes need a great deal of support, patience, firm boundaries, and tolerance from those around them. When overwhelmed they have intense emotions that they can’t understand or explain and will often be reactive, inflexible, dysregulated, and sometimes non-verbal. Thus, they seek a nanny who can be calm, kind, and firm with the kids. Someone who can be there as a support person to the parents; an extension of them. Someone who can deal with occasional meltdowns and can establish and keep firm boundaries.
The eldest is generally quiet, inflexible, and rule-abiding. She, like her brother, tends to be oppositional by default to suggestions made by her parents. She panics when overwhelmed and gets overwhelmed easily. She is gently being introduced to more responsibility for chores and for self-care in order to acquire the skills she will use to live independently one day.
Her brother is more outgoing, but also more volatile and uninterested in following rules. He tends to get angry when overwhelmed. He was in virtual school since covid until this fall and is adapting well to being back in school in person, except that he is anxious about doing well in his classes, and often acts out angrily when he is especially worried. His main interests right now include frogs and video games. He has severe chronic constipation, which currently requires daily enemas to treat. This would NOT be part of the nanny’s duties, but it does have an impact on daily life and schedules, and sometimes causes behavioral problems. He also can be hostile towards new people who come to the house, so extra patience will be required for a while.
When overwhelmed, both kids generally need space, quiet and patience more than adult intervention. It’s important for their nanny to enforce their own boundaries firmly, kindly, and concisely with both kids when they act out due to overwhelm. It is especially important that their nanny calmly and firmly establishes that they will not tolerate certain negative behaviors. Both kids react better to people who have a cool- over warm-demeanor. It would be helpful for the candidate to understand autism, sensory overload, and delayed emotional development, but it is not a requirement. Someone who has more modern approaches to handling autism.
They are open to all US candidates and helping with relocation within reason, but the position is LIVE OUT only; housing is not provided. All normal childhood immunizations, covid + booster(s), and yearly flu shots are required. Benefits include paid sick days, holidays, vacation and health insurance stipend. Pay is $25-35/hour. Start date is early January 2023, but flexible for the right candidate!