We are so looking forward to meeting you! Living with us will be rewarding and fun -- we work hard, play hard, and love to laugh! You will also be living in one of America’s top ten best small towns, according to Money Magazine, which ranked Ellicott City one of the “Best Places to Live” out of 780 towns with populations between 50,000-300,000. We’re close enough to Washington, DC, and Baltimore to be accessible for day trips to urban dining, entertainment, and site seeing, but far enough away to enjoy a quiet, friendly, and safe community with a lot less traffic and stress! There are many wonderful colleges and universities within a short drive of our home, too, so if you want to take classes, this a great place to be.
My husband and I both grew up in Maryland, in the DC metro area, and attended Johns Hopkins University as undergrads, and the University of Maryland for our advanced degrees. My husband has a PhD in Physics and I have a Master’s Degree in Public Policy. He currently works as a Senior Financial Research Analyst for a hedge fund and I am a community activist, volunteer, and full-time mother of three extraordinary children.
Our children, Clare (11), Jeffrey (9), and Josie (7) are all in advanced and GT classes at school and get excellent grades for their academic achievements and behavior. Clare has had straight A’s in advanced classes and all “exceeds expectations” in behavior the past two quarters, despite the fact that she has attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), primarily inattentive type.* She is only moderately affected by this, which means she has a little more trouble than the average 11-year-old staying focused on tasks, organizing her time and work, and resisting impulsive behaviors. Clare also takes medication to help manage her ADHD. We have a wonderful team of adults helping her, including her parents, her pediatrician, and the team at school. Our au pair would become an important part of this team and she would need to be willing to learn about this condition, exercise a little extra patience, administer medicine as needed, and apply some basic behavior management techniques to help Clare continue to succeed.
My husband and I both have a deep appreciation for music and play instruments; he plays guitar, and almost anything with strings, and I play tenor saxophone. The kids are all musical, too, they all take piano lessons, and Jeffrey plays trumpet and Clare plays cello. All three kids play soccer. Jeffrey loves all sports. In addition to soccer, he plays basketball and flag football, he really loves football! Clare and Josie are also involved in girl scouts (Juniors and Daisies this year.)
We are so busy – I need another set of hands to manage it all – and another driver! Phil leaves early for work and gets home late and has evening activities from time to time. I volunteer at the kids’ school, handle all the kids activities (practices, lessons, etc.), work on political campaigns, and I am exploring some potential opportunities to go back to work in the next year or two. We also have a second home on the Eastern Shore where we spend a lot of time in the summer, so I’m also managing two properties. I try to see friends and family, exercise, and have some personal time, when I can, but I could really use another adult at home to keep up with everything.
I need someone to help the children get their homework done, ensure they practice their music, prepare meals, and drive them to sports practices and other activities. In the evenings, they may need help getting ready for bed, sharing the bathroom, and settling down to sleep. Since the kids activities often conflict, I need someone who can coordinate with me, and share driving and other responsibilities as needed. A car will be available to you while you’re with us. We also need help tidying up after the kids, doing dishes and laundry, and helping them learn to do more for themselves. We have a cleaning service come every other week, so we don’t expect heavy housework.
We have had a variety of part-time nannies and babysitters over the years, helping out now and then, but they tend to come and go. We’d really like to have someone make a commitment to stick around for at least a year, and hopefully, more! We really need someone available 40-45 hours a week, especially, weekday afternoons and evenings. My husband and I rarely get to have a night out, so having someone at home so that we could have a date night every week or two, or do something out without the kids now and then, would be really nice!
We have had very nice relationships with all our nannies and babysitters in the past. If you choose our family, you will be treated with respect and appreciation. We are a chatty family, and good communicators, if there are issues or concerns, we talk about it, make adjustments, and keep things pleasant. I like to make plans and stick to them when possible, punctuality and dependability are very important to me, but circumstances often change unexpectedly, so our au pair needs to be accommodating and able to think on her feet as things come up. She needs to be patient and kind, as well, to keep things pleasant and calm even if the kids, my husband, and/or I get stressed or flustered.
Growing up in the DC metro area, my husband and I have always lived among people of all nationalities and cultures. I loved this diversity so much that I studied international relations and Russian in college. I went to Ukraine and Russia to study one summer in college and I have traveled to Spain, France, Ireland, and Egypt with family as well. My husband was born in the US and grew up here, but his parents are Christian Egyptians who immigrated to America in 1971. My husband speaks Arabic and still has family in Egypt. We both have a deep appreciation for the experience of learning and speaking a second language and living in a foreign country. I think you will find us to be a warm and generous family, happy to learn about your home country, and embrace you in our home and our wonderfully diverse community. We look forward to meeting you!