Mother's help....anyone had one?

[Melly]

Was just wondering if any of you have had or currently have a mother's help? I was reading an old thread and saw that someone (sorry can't remember who it was) employed one for a couple of hours in the evening. As dh works away Monday - Friday I was thinking about this but not sure how to go about it, or how much money I would be looking at.
Anyone got any advice?

You can get them via nanny agencies (so ad their fee on top of the hourly rate). They tend to charge £6 or 7/hour. They are young women (18 or so) -as I understand it they have no qualification but "should" do what you need them to do.... HTH!

they are very hard to find for just a few hours. I had a couple when the twins were born. One couldn't cook and was lazy the other was wonderful! You might be better off looking for a cleaner (especially if they will do teh ironing)

Melly - I know your baby is a few months old so normally a doula would not be your first choice (as we work mainly with families with newborns) but maybe there might be one locally who could do 2 hours a night for 3 or 4 nights a week (fees vary greatly from £8 to 15/hour - depends where you are and how experienced).
The other thing you could look into are teenagers (18 or so) who might be interested... my cousin did that with great success.

Agree with Pupuce.
I have a teenages neighbour who comes(of her own free will) from 4 till 6 roughly about three days a week but I can ask her to come on certain days. She is great. I dont want to employ her but I keep her very sweet and take an interest in her life etc (she is a bit naughty at school so this is wise!)

She plays and holds the baby and baths them or helps with stories.

Cant you find someone like this?

Someone I know got in touch with the local college and got someone from the Nursery Nurse course. Her DS is now one but I think she has been going a couple of times a week and plays with him while the mother cooks dinner, tidies up, etc. - an extra pair of hands.

I don't think she's expensive and it's beneficial for both parties.

I am going to invent a tension adjustable pair of hands that fold down from the wall, to hold babies in whilst uyou gET SOMETHING DONE!!

iT may even have a jiggling up and down anf making noises feature

Looks like you could have done with them jusst now - typing with infant on knee?

I have some help a few hours a week from an au pair who lives with another family but had some time to spare, and this works well. you could try something similar by contacting your local agencies. I pay her £7 an hour. Good luck!

Try here and there are some other similar website I believe. This one is primarily for Ozzies/Kiwis/South Africans travelling and staying in London but does include other nationalities and UK locations, just less so. You go to the Jobs Wanted section, click onto Healthcare/Home Help/Teaching and you will find many, many posts from people looking for this type of work, some with experince and even qualificaitons and some not. You can place ad ad yourelf for just under £20. If you're in London it is great but, if not, its still worth a try.

I've got a lovely au-pair living in at the moment and, although we swore we wouldn't have anyone, we got scared the closer it got to the baby's birth. We couldn't have managed without her as we also have an 8 year old son who is severely autistic and we are both "old" (43 & 45). She won't stay with us beyond September though as I feel we'll be able to manage and I want her room back to move the baby to and she will bt just about 6 mos then. She came to us via a friend who met her on holiday..... you never know where you might find someone. Also agree that local 6th former type sounds good, especially someone who might want to work with kids in the future (ours is only 19).

Thanks for all the suggestions.