This month the lovely Michelle from the Nanny Junction shares what she does to support SEN families:
The Nanny Junction is a nanny recruitment agency specialising in supporting SEN and respite for families who have children with additional needs.
We have been running since January 2019, before this I was a stay at home mum and carer to my eldest 2 children who both have special needs, prior to taking that decision to give up my career and become a stay at home mum I worked across numerous childcare placements working as a nanny, nursery nurse, Learning support assistant, childminder and Teaching assistant. Making that decision to give up work came when my eldest who is now 15 was 21 mths and we were experiencing febrile convulsions on a frequent basis and paying for him to go to a nursery when he was well just didn’t make sense anymore, I wanted to be the one to care for him and I’ve pretty much since stayed at home to care for all my 4 children.
The struggles we’ve experienced with the eldest 2 and support led me to create my business as I’m not alone in the struggle for support.
My typical day can be either a happy smooth running or a ball of stress, this is all dependent on the moods of my SEN children in the morning, we wake late as they don’t have time concepts and would be stood at the door waiting for the bus whether they were ready at 7 am or 8am, we do all those boring need to be done tasks, breakfast, lunch boxes and getting ready, buses collect currently the older 3 and I take the little one to pre-school. Within my week I’ve now decided to take a day for myself as it’s so important to have that time for yourself to be someone other than just mum, wife, cook or cleaner. The rest of my day time is split across meeting s for the children with school or specialists, admin for the business, networking or meeting clients with some housework thrown in too before the school run starts and the afternoons witching hour creeps upon us with the children’s wants and demands. I’ve honestly never heard my name mentioned so many times than I do in these 3 hours from 4 to 7pm – mum, mum, mum………
I help support parents with advice as well as support them to find the right nanny to care for their family, enabling them to access work, respite or even the odd night out here and there. Taking the stress out of searching and giving them more time to spend with their children.
The best part of my job by far is supporting SEN parents, a support that I wished I had of had access to when I was going through diagnosis, to now. I recently helped a mum who had decided to home school her son as school wasn’t working as well as it should be and created a pack for her, giving info on all the support she can access, groups to be a part of and where to get resources from. This parent much appreciated this and made the decision she’d made a little easier. Also for me just talking and sharing my life with other SEN families makes them feel like they are not alone in this journey and we all experience those days that we wish would end quicker as well as celebrate the happy days that can sometimes be few and far between the stress of family life raising and fighting for your child on a daily basis to access everything they should be able to.
The future for The Nanny Junction is set to change and in the next year we hope to have a dedicated website, as we split the business and provided an access point for families – Supporting Sen Families we are doing this with taking into action we want to support the whole family.
Click here for more info about the Nanny Junction or visit their website