Evolution of the Afternoon Family Assistant
The Evolution of the Afternoon Family Assistant
Better known as After-School Nannies, Family Assistants can do wonders to make life easier for your family. Life is supposed to get easier for us when our children start school, right? Wrong! It gets much more complicated. When my children were small, I never realized how many different activities and things needed to be done between 3:30 and bed-time. They need to be at different places after school, every day of the week. I often find myself taking my lunch-hour from 3:30-4:30 PM so I can shuffle my kids around from place to place. Then when my husband and I get home from work, we are trying to make dinner, supervise loads of homework, run to music lessons with one and soccer practice with the other, attend school functions, and it goes on and on! I only have two kids. I can’t imagine how it would work with three or four kids, even in families where there are not two working parents. It is no wonder parents are exhausted and overwhelmed.
TLC for Kids has been finding nannies for families for over 25 years, but we have only recently seen a huge increase in the demand for family assistants after school. These nannies are becoming invaluable family assistants, alleviating the stress of busy families when they need it most: from 3 PM – 7 PM! The family assistant, picks up kids from school, provides transportation to activities, lessons and appointments, gets the kids started on their homework, walks your dog, empties your dishwasher, throws in a load of laundry and can start dinner. Some may offer special skills in art, foreign language, sports and music.
Plenty of moms used to hire a sitter to play with the kids while she prepared dinner, but today’s families need more. Clients used to call TLC for Kids for After-school Nannies because they needed someone to pick their kids up from school and supervise them until parents could get home for work. Now, After-school Nannies/Afternoon Family Assistants are becoming an integral part of the family and provide so much more!
Afternoon Family Assistants are generally college students looking for a job that will fit with their class schedule. More often than not, our Afternoon Family Assistants are studying education and eager to put their education to work to help your children with their homework, teach them organizational skills and get them into a good routine for effective homework habits and study skills. Typical hours for Afternoon Family Assistants are any combination of M-F from 2:30/3:30 pm – 6:30/7:30 pm. They are generally flexible to work on school holidays, stay overnight if you have to travel, pet sit when your entire family travels and even work for you more hours in the summer when everyone is out of school.
So, if you are a parent like me, you may find an Afternoon Family Assistant a huge asset to the family; fewer battles over homework with the kids, more time for each individual child, less stress in your marriage, and time to breathe. If you are a student, an empty nester, a retiree looking for a great part-time job, an Afternoon Family Assistant job might be just what you are looking for!
Here’s a list of the various AFA responsibilities you may benefit from.
Pick up children from school
Take to after-school activities
– sports practice
– tutoring/Kumon
– music lessons
– religious school
Homework
– get kids to start homework before dinner
– teach good study skills
– help your child learn
– supervise musical instrument practice
Run errands
– grocery store
– target
– dry cleaner
– Walgreens
– library
Start Dinner
Help with homework
Do a load of laundry
Empty the dishwasher
Sports
-practice sports
-teach kids to ride a bike, skate, etc.
– supervise active, outdoor play
Supervise/help kids with household tasks
– emptying out their backpacks
– supervising their chores
– keep them away from the TV!