So where are you looking for a governess for the fall?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm waiting until school announcement is final to pull the trigger on a governess.

However, I don't have high hopes that we'll find someone who has a suitable educational backyard AND is fluent/native speaker in child's immersion language AND who we can afford.

What language?

PP. French. I’m hoping for a college student but not holding my breath we’ll find someone.

[Anonymous]

I'd consider being a "governess" to a family this year. I'm a preschool teacher, I have advanced degrees in child development, well-versed in play-based learning. Not sure that I feel safe enough to return to teaching in a classroom this fall.

Working with one family, or even a few, seems far less risky than working with a classroom full of children this year.

I would prefer something part time, like just mornings or just afternoons. I could provide personalized preschool at someone's home. Any interest in this? At what hourly rate?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Would you pay another parent to do this if your kids are roughly the same age as theirs? How much? If I could cover a quarter of my salary, I'd consider taking a sabbatical to do this.

I have a Masters in Education but have not worked in a school since internship (went into edu policy and then into an adjacent policy field).

I paid a FFX teacher $20/hr to supervise the APS curriculum in the spring for lower elementary. If I go in with a pod for fall I imagine we’ll be paying $30-40/hr for 3-4 kids. So if it was my kid and yours and you were hosting, I’d pay $15-20/hr, on the books, through a nanny payroll type company.

That’s really low. I pay teenage babysitters that much.

Yeah, no kidding. What unicorn would take this job?

I would. I am a single mom laid off and thinking about using all 39 weeks of UI, plus earning a little cash on the side of the $600 is not extended.
I am going to supervise my kid’s online learning via his public, make lunch for him, etc.
I might offer outside play in lieu of online PE, and maybe a field trip every Wednesday when learning is asynchronous.
It will really depend on what the other parents prefer.
I would be super happy with $15-20/hr cash.
Kids won’t have to wear masks, too.
My only concern would be to find a family that is not litigious if god forbid someone gets sick, and not super strict on masks (in the household) and protocols.

Well this would be unemployment fraud and tax fraud. I was unaware of that plot point in Mary Poppins.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Would you pay another parent to do this if your kids are roughly the same age as theirs? How much? If I could cover a quarter of my salary, I'd consider taking a sabbatical to do this.

I have a Masters in Education but have not worked in a school since internship (went into edu policy and then into an adjacent policy field).

I paid a FFX teacher $20/hr to supervise the APS curriculum in the spring for lower elementary. If I go in with a pod for fall I imagine we’ll be paying $30-40/hr for 3-4 kids. So if it was my kid and yours and you were hosting, I’d pay $15-20/hr, on the books, through a nanny payroll type company.

That’s really low. I pay teenage babysitters that much.

Yeah, no kidding. What unicorn would take this job?

I would. I am a single mom laid off and thinking about using all 39 weeks of UI, plus earning a little cash on the side of the $600 is not extended.
I am going to supervise my kid’s online learning via his public, make lunch for him, etc.
I might offer outside play in lieu of online PE, and maybe a field trip every Wednesday when learning is asynchronous.
It will really depend on what the other parents prefer.
I would be super happy with $15-20/hr cash.
Kids won’t have to wear masks, too.
My only concern would be to find a family that is not litigious if god forbid someone gets sick, and not super strict on masks (in the household) and protocols.

Well this would be unemployment fraud and tax fraud. I was unaware of that plot point in Mary Poppins.

I hope they will extend the federal benefit and there will be no need. I would of course prefer to concentrate on my own child but if I am left to teach him and survive on $1800/mo, what can I do?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Would you pay another parent to do this if your kids are roughly the same age as theirs? How much? If I could cover a quarter of my salary, I'd consider taking a sabbatical to do this.

I have a Masters in Education but have not worked in a school since internship (went into edu policy and then into an adjacent policy field).

I paid a FFX teacher $20/hr to supervise the APS curriculum in the spring for lower elementary. If I go in with a pod for fall I imagine we’ll be paying $30-40/hr for 3-4 kids. So if it was my kid and yours and you were hosting, I’d pay $15-20/hr, on the books, through a nanny payroll type company.

That’s really low. I pay teenage babysitters that much.

Yeah, no kidding. What unicorn would take this job?

I would. I am a single mom laid off and thinking about using all 39 weeks of UI, plus earning a little cash on the side of the $600 is not extended.
I am going to supervise my kid’s online learning via his public, make lunch for him, etc.
I might offer outside play in lieu of online PE, and maybe a field trip every Wednesday when learning is asynchronous.
It will really depend on what the other parents prefer.
I would be super happy with $15-20/hr cash.
Kids won’t have to wear masks, too.
My only concern would be to find a family that is not litigious if god forbid someone gets sick, and not super strict on masks (in the household) and protocols.

Well this would be unemployment fraud and tax fraud. I was unaware of that plot point in Mary Poppins.

I hope they will extend the federal benefit and there will be no need. I would of course prefer to concentrate on my own child but if I am left to teach him and survive on $1800/mo, what can I do?

Do what you need to do. The rich do worse.
If you'd like other options you can teach English online, sell your lesson plans, create your own courses.

When I used to do all 3 I made an extra $2,500 a month but it burnt me out at only 24 and I finally paid off all my graduate school loans lol.
Anyway you'd be surprised at the number of jobs for certified teachers online, some are better than others just depends on your skills and what you like to do.

I still sell my courses and lesson plans and since I'm not updating them I'm only making an extra $800 a month but it still certainly helps. Once you put in the work you have 'effortless' stream(s) of income.

[Anonymous]

I came over here b/c @unsuck mentioned it. She’s right: people here should be punched for their privilege. They should out this energy into advocating for the safety of all DC students.

[Anonymous]

But that's not going to solve the problem in 6 weeks. I'm not going to hire help, but I am going to need to wake up at 4am every morning to cram in enough work before the kids wake up. I don't think many teachers seem to understand what life is like with parents working while kids are home and need to be educated. And then parents are ostracized for trying make this work for them?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We're advertising for a "gap year" Canadian who will act as our "distance learning supervisor" in return for travel expenses, room board, Metro passes, gift cards etc. Gap year girl or guy's job will be to keep our 2 upper grades kids track to complete their DCPS' DL assignments, jazzing content up a bit with games, songs, activities. We sucked as home schooling parents in the spring and want live-in help this time around. We've advertised on a couple Canadian job sites geared to young people and are receiving promising sounding inquiries. Canadians can still travel to the US on 6-month tourist visas that are issued automatically. They can stay with American families as unpaid guests. Canadian tourists can no longer cross land borders but can still fly in. We're currently checking references and interviewing applicants and expect to have a young person in the house to supervise most of our children's DL by Labor Day. We hosted au pairs on J-1 visas for years, so not a big change for us (just no more J-1 visas in the mix as the WH has frozen au pair visas at least til the end of the year).

I really want to know why you need this person to be Canadian?

Unless you can pay pretty well, it's not easy to attract a capable 20-something American citizen to work mostly for room and board. But if the gig is a cultural experience (chance to explore DC and the US) you do better. Canadians can still fly in, and can qualify for automatic 6-month visas (no visa interview).

[Anonymous]

I came here because I wanted to know how long it would be before someone chewed out OP for saying “governess”.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We're advertising for a "gap year" Canadian who will act as our "distance learning supervisor" in return for travel expenses, room board, Metro passes, gift cards etc. Gap year girl or guy's job will be to keep our 2 upper grades kids track to complete their DCPS' DL assignments, jazzing content up a bit with games, songs, activities. We sucked as home schooling parents in the spring and want live-in help this time around. We've advertised on a couple Canadian job sites geared to young people and are receiving promising sounding inquiries. Canadians can still travel to the US on 6-month tourist visas that are issued automatically. They can stay with American families as unpaid guests. Canadian tourists can no longer cross land borders but can still fly in. We're currently checking references and interviewing applicants and expect to have a young person in the house to supervise most of our children's DL by Labor Day. We hosted au pairs on J-1 visas for years, so not a big change for us (just no more J-1 visas in the mix as the WH has frozen au pair visas at least til the end of the year).

Why on earth would someone want to come to our pandemic-ravaged country to take an unpaid internship for some random family? And have to live-in? Ugh!

[Anonymous]

I did something like that in Canada on a gap year between HS and college and it worked out great. The family couldn't pay me formally, but gave me all kinds of trips, gift cards, travel gear.

DC isn't covid ravaged right now.

Only Canadians can visit the US visa free for up to 180 days. I bet the random family will find a taker. Capitol Hill is a lot more interesting than rural Saskatchewan.

[Anonymous]

Why on earth would someone want to come to our pandemic-ravaged country to take an unpaid internship for some random family? And have to live-in? Ugh!

Sounds like a very well-paid part-time job as they go for an adventurous young person, including nice room in pricey neighborhood, meals, gift cards, lots of free time. Life goes on during this pandemic during an increasingly tough job market for young people. Good idea on the parents' part.

[Anonymous]

Having to supervise the DCPS distance education of two children: keeping on top of Zoom and other schedules, motivating kids to even tune in, untangling myriad online platforms, filling in gaps in teaching (is eureka math even used in Canada?), ensuring charges complete assignments on a timely basis, communicating with teachers about confusing assignments/charges’ missing work. Collapse into a troubled sleep. That doesn’t add up to plenty of free time to me.

Plus if parents are working at home, they are on your case about making sure kids don’t take too much screen time outside of school work. If parents are going to work, maybe will give you corona.

Plus, if you even have any free time, where are you going to go? Hang out with that cute guy you somehow managed to meet? And the parents throw shade at you when you get “home” bc they’re afraid you’re going to infect the whole family with Corona...which you’d love to do by now.

Except, does your Canadian health insurance even work in the US for massive Corona hospital bills?

No wonder Jane Fairfax was only pretending to be interested in going out as a governess! Life with that callow Frank Churchill indeed afforded an infinitely preferable perspective.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:But that's not going to solve the problem in 6 weeks. I'm not going to hire help, but I am going to need to wake up at 4am every morning to cram in enough work before the kids wake up. I don't think many teachers seem to understand what life is like with parents working while kids are home and need to be educated. And then parents are ostracized for trying make this work for them?

I sure do understand. I have two school aged children, one with special needs. So I am acutely aware that it is near impossible to teach your children while also working. And for all the parents on here complaining about live classes, you can hear my child melting down screaming and yelling in the background. I have to erase my child’s privacy to serve your children. So please have a little sympathy for teachers who are also struggling mightily.

[Anonymous]

But teachers are coming here mocking parents considering hiring outside help. Are we all supposed to suffer?