After School Nannies

Like so many of you, we discovered the joy of Charlie Mackesy's illustrations last year and as ever the messages couldn’t be more true or more apt for getting us through what is hopefully the final stretch. Happy weekend everyone.

It makes us incredibly sad to hear the stories of mothers (and fathers) struggling up and down the country to balance WFH with home schooling. No parent should feel forced to give up a career because their employers are not understanding of the situation. Read the full story on BBC News at https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-55935119

A recent survey by Sevilla and Smith (2020) has shown that during COVID-19, the majority of extra childcare has been shouldered by women. The results showed that the average woman is doing an extra 30 hours of childcare per week compared with pre-COVID.
The average couple is now spending an extra 40 hours on childcare per week (the equivalent burden of a full working week) compared with pre-COVID, in addition to working from home and household chores.
Read the study here: https://academic.oup.com/oxrep/article/36/Supplement_1/S169/5899014

How is home schooling going for everyone? Are your children as happy as this picture?
Probably not … and that’s totally fine! As a childcare platform that strongly believes in the education and development of children, we also want families to know it’s ok to simply be surviving and not thriving at the moment. Every day in lockdown is a day closer to ‘normality’

We’ve got that so it’s time for a quick and easy recipe you can bake with the kids, courtesy of . These smarties cookies take just 25 minutes and you can use any sweets you have – Minstrels, Maltesers or M&Ms.

Ingredients
150g butter, softened
125g light brown sugar
100g caster sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 large Waitrose British Blacktail Free Range Egg
250g plain flour
½ tsp bicarbonate of soda
½ tsp baking powder
150g Smarties (or 4 x 38g tubes), half crushed and half whole

Method
1. In a large bowl, beat together the soft butter with both types of sugar using a wooden spoon. Beat the mixture until everything is well combined, but there’s no need for it to be light and fluffy.
2. Add the vanilla extract and egg to the butter mixture and beat again until all the ingredients are smooth.
3. In a separate bowl, combine the remaining dry ingredients. Then pour them into the wet mixture and fold in using a spatula until a stiff dough forms. Add the Smarties and stir through.
4. Refrigerate the dough for at least 30 minutes. Preheat the oven to 170°C, gas mark 3. Grease and line 2-3 large baking trays with baking paper.
5. Use a small ice cream scoop to form balls of dough (a teaspoon or tablespoon will work too, but the shapes won’t be as regular). Place the balls onto the trays, leaving space for each to spread out. Try not to roll them, as the ragged top created by the scoop gives the cookies their traditional cracked surface.
6. Bake the cookies for 10 minutes, or until the mixture has spread out and browned around the edges. Remove from the oven – the cookies should look undercooked in the middle – and allow to cool for at least 10 minutes.

Original recipe from : https://www.waitrose.com/content/waitrose/en/home/recipes/recipe_directory/s/smarties-cookies.html

If this is you right now, we can only empathise! Who thought that in January 2021 we would be living in a world where your sofa is simultaneously your office, bed (power nap anyone…?) and your child’s play equipment?
As tiring and emotionally draining as the WFH/home schooling day can be, we are so glad that there is finally light at the end of the tunnel. Thanks to the NHS, the vaccine researchers and everyone who made the vaccine possible, we are now dreaming of a summer where we can have a bit more freedom back. Roll on the BBQs!

If we learnt one thing from 2020 it is to slow down and stop beating yourself up for the things you “should” be doing. We love this quote from which summarises how we are approaching the new year, taking each day at a time and focussing on what we can control.

To all the parents out there: don’t beat yourself up if home schooling isn’t going to plan or if your meeting is interrupted by a small person. You are doing the best you can.

If you are back to juggling home schooling with working from home, trying to keep the house vaguely tidy and fit in your daily exercise, you are not alone.

We want you to know that childcare is still allowed under the lockdown rules and if you need some support, we have plenty of nannies available to help part-time and flexibly with your needs. We appreciate how hard things are for families and how personal the decision of childcare is at this time, we are accepting new families and want to do our best to help as many people as we can during this time.
For more information, please see www.afterschoolnannies.com

Happy New Year to all of our wonderful nannies & families. Thank you for your continued support throughout this difficult year and here's to 2021 🎉

🎄 Wishing everybody a very merry Christmas, however you manage to celebrate this year. We hope you all have a relaxing and joyful day with your family, whether you are able to see them or not (big hugs to those who are not with their family today)🎄
from all of us at ASN x

Even if Christmas isn’t quite the same this year, it still somehow feels like a mad rush to get everything done, last minute zoom meetings, delayed present deliveries and the usual Christmas eve sprint around the supermarket (this time in a mask) because Ocado slots have been booked up since September …

Illustration via the wonderful

7 days till Christmas, who is ready?! Here’s our top tips for a relaxing day:
1. Remember Christmas is just another day; don’t put too much pressure on yourself to have the ‘perfect’ day.
2. Try and plan ahead to avoid feeling overwhelmed and to have a rough routine in place.
3. Make an escape plan! Plan what you can do if things get too much, take a walk, have a bath or listen to your favourite podcast to just take 30 minutes for yourself.