Anna came into our lives during the summer holidays of 2021, when I needed help managing the very differing needs of my 6 month old baby and my emotional, lively preschooler. The role was initially as a regular Mother's Help for a couple of hours each day, and Anna's immediate ability to connect with my children (despite the younger having just started experiencing separation anxiety and the elder having always been extremely wary of new people) blew me away and saved my sanity!
For the past year Anna has been helping us with occasional daytime childcare, sometimes on a sole charge basis and sometimes with me around, and also some evening babysitting.
Anna has always been happy to help out with anything we required, be that walking in the rain to get the little one to sleep in the buggy, or babywearing to get her back to sleep during an evening babysitting session. Anna is so dedicated to her role looking after children that she considers it completely normal and expected to do things which I might be a bit nervous about asking other people to do.
She cares deeply for children (&animals!) and has been extremely good with my older daughter who is very sensitive and hasn't always bonded with other caregivers. I have also found Anna very likeable and she is a good communicator, so it has been easy having her around the house when she's helping me look after the children.
All in all, Anna is everything you could ever wish for when handing your children over to a stranger. She's a modern-day Mary Poppins who is experienced and proactive and more often than not she has some exciting thing in her bag to enthrall your kids with! :)

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