Right as the sun rises, before most people have hit the snooze button to start their day, senior Kira Anderson arrives at her nanny house. Once there, she heads into the home office and opens up her MacBook to Cisco Webex Meetings for first hour Video Productions.
Then at eight o’clock, second grader Hadley Hill takes a seat at the desk next to Anderson’s and pulls up Webex while fourth grader Abby Hill does the same, not much farther away, in the dining room.
Anderson has taken on the role of an in-home nanny to two elementary schoolers, in addition to being a full-time high school student. During remote learning, she stays at the Hills’ house on Tuesdays and Fridays from 7:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. to help Hadley and Abby with their schoolwork and take them to their after school activities.
Anderson shares the position with senior Lauren Dierks, who’s responsible for Mondays and Thursdays. The girls’ aunt watches them on Wednesdays.
“I think that just the way the schedules are and the way the classes work in high school allows them to have some time to help our kids when they need it,” Hadley and Abby’s mom Wendy Hill said. “And our kids love having [Anderson and Dierks] around.”
Hill decided to go with both Anderson and Dierks because she thought it might be stressful if only one were responsible for watching the kids five days a week, while simultaneously attending school.
“I was nervous going into it because I was like if this doesn’t work, I have no idea what we’re going to do,” Hill said. “I didn’t want Lauren and Kira to feel uncomfortable about getting their schoolwork done just to help our kids.”
Making Hadley and Abby snacks and helping them with math problems does require Anderson to sacrifice some of the time she could’ve been spending working on assignments of her own. But that just means that she has to set aside extra time at the end of her day to complete her own work.
Another one of Anderson’s responsibilities is to make sure that the girls come back from their breaks and make their Webex meetings at the correct times. This can be a struggle because the three all have different breaks.
But to Anderson’s surprise, time management hasn’t been the hardest part of the job.
“The biggest struggle is being right next to Hadley because she hates her headphones,” Anderson said. “So I’m listening to her teacher talk and all of her second grade friends talk while I’m on a call.”
Despite the challenges of nannying and being a full-time student, Anderson looks forward to her time with the Hill girls.
“It’s really nice because it feels like I’m just getting paid to go to school,” Anderson said. “I actually really like it and I really like the kids.”
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