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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]We both work demanding and rewarding jobs, and we have a baby and a toddler.

We have a wonderful nanny 8-5 M-F and she is great about picking up after our kids - we don’t want to ask more of her.
[b]
We have a weekly cleaner who does cleaning but nothing else (she is also a bit unreliable).[/b]

Outside of work, we want our time to be spent with our kids, and on special work and family projects - not washing bottles / doing dishes / cleaning high chair / laundry / house work and yard work / etc. (And it would be amazing to have any time for ourselves too!).

Those of you who have multiple kids and demanding careers - what help has worked well for you? And how do you not make it feel like you constantly have employees in your home?

(Please don’t say we shouldn’t have two kids or someone has to stay home - we like our life, we just want more time. Thanks).[/quote]

Definitely find a better cleaner. We had one we loved but she was also unreliable and it added too much stress. One time she canceled due to a sick child the day before we were hosting four people in our house for the weekend. I told her I couldn't handle the inconsistency anymore and moved to a service, who has never failed to provide two people at the exact time I have requested. I do miss her, but two people are faster than one (I work from home so I am here, albeit in my office, while they're cleaning), and I never have to worry about if they're coming.

You could also look for a cleaner/service that does laundry or you could outsource it to a service that picks up and delivers it back (you'd still have to put it away, obviously). Dishes are a daily thing, so either your nanny could do them while the kids nap (although we always allowed our nanny to rest while the kids rested when they were little), or you could look into some sort of cooking/chef service that would include dishes? Not sure if that exists. You could also look into cleaning on an every other day basis as opposed to once a week and they could do things like clean high chairs, etc.

For yard work hire a gardening service. That's an easy one. For house work I would find a trusted handyman via friends/neighbors. We have one who will find contractors for us when we need assistance with things he doesn't do.

Good luck, and it gets easier as the kids get older![/quote]

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