Childcare solutions: What is a mother's helper?

You love your kids, but sometimes they drive you to the edge of sanity. It would be great to hire a regular babysitter, but your budget is just too tight these days. Have you considered enlisting the assistance of a mother’s helper?

A mother's helper is a little different than a nanny or babysitter because she assists the family while one or both parents are still at home. Mother's helpers can help with childcare, laundry, cooking, cleaning or other household chores. The best part about a mother's helper is that because a responsible parent is still at home, the pay is significantly less than that of a nanny or babysitter. Oftentimes, young girls who are not quite full-fledged babysitting age will work as mother's helpers in order to gain skills and training for future babysitting positions.

Mother's helpers can be asked to do a variety of household chores. Do you work from home? Hire a mother's helper to entertain your children while you finish up important projects that require more concentration than you can achieve while you have a 2-year-old hanging from your ankles.

Household chores getting you down? Ask your mother's helper to pitch in and together you'll knock out an enormous amount of work in no time at all. Do you homeschool? How about asking your mother's helper to play with your toddlers while you do lessons with your older children? There are many ways that you can tailor your mother's helper to the specific needs of your family.

If you choose a young mother's helper that is just learning the ropes, it will be your responsibility to train her to assist your family in a way that is most useful to you. Don't think of this as a drawback. While you will have to put in a little more time and effort in the beginning to teach her how to do certain chores, on the positive note, she is coming to you with a learning attitude and she should be happy to follow your instructions.

Don't be shy. Tell your mother's helper exactly what your family's needs are and give her detailed instructions on how she can help. Don't just say, "Please entertain the children while I work." Instead, describe exactly what your expectations are. "I'd like you to play with the children while I finish this project. I will need approximately two hours. Please take them out in the backyard where they can play with the sprinkler or in the sandbox. If they get hungry, clean them off outside and then bring them into the kitchen for a snack."

The best way to find a mother's helper is to utilize the connections you have in your own community. Ask around at church, playgroup, the YMCA, Zumba class, knitting circle, etc. Most moms of tweens are eager to help their daughters gain babysitting skills before they reach legal babysitting age. Arrange a time to talk with your potential mother's helper and her parents to make sure everyone is in agreement before you start working together.

Depending on how much training they need, compensation ?can vary widely for mother's helpers. If you are the first family she has assisted, $3 per hour is a generous rate. As time goes on and your mother's helper reaches legal babysitting age, you will want to raise her rate to at least minimum wage or whatever the going rate is in your community.

Once your mother's helper becomes a full-fledged babysitter, you can also feel confident to leave her with your children while you leave the house. This is also a wonderful way to gain trust in a babysitter before leaving her with her children, because you can really get to know someone while you are in the home together.

Says mother of three Tania Turner, "I am so pleased with our mother's helper! She started working with us when she was only 11 and she helps out with everything around the house. She has always had a great attitude and the kids love her. Now she is 14 and she is a babysitter for lots of families in our neighborhood. But she always works for us first because we have such a close relationship thanks to our mother's helper experience."

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