A Day in the Life of a Manny

My car entered their driveway. Engine off. A few seconds of silence before starting my day looking after the two boys. As I stepped out of the car, I heard a faint crying noise. And as I walked closer to the front door it was confirmed that this was coming from the family's house. Not to worry though. This is part of your job. Babies cry - that's their job.

A flying start

As the mum opened the door to greet me, an almighty noise engulfed me - it sounded like a headline act from Glastonbury had turned up. It was mayhem.

Baby had a cold and therefore did not have a good night - he was in a miserable mood - and rightly so. Older brother was running around refusing to get dressed with his dad running around after him. Dad resembled a very tired monkey. Older brother on the other hand reminded me of Spider-man, traversing between skyscrapers.

Breakfast 

Mum and dad needed to go to work. Baby was swiftly handed to me and older brother was left with one sock on and a pair of pants that required pulling up. He wanted breakfast. Nope. You need to get dressed first. Que more Spider-man-esque traversing. We can get back to you in a minute.

Baby had more gunge exiting his nose than seen on Get Your Own Back. Wiped. A little further crying before he settled down with a bowl of Weetabix.

Older brother entered the kitchen literally dressed as Spider-man. At least he was technically dressed.

With patience, perseverance, a little more patience and even more perseverance older brother agreed to get dressed in to a regular human outfit.

He was dropped off at nursery for the day whilst baby and I had the day to ourselves.

A quiet day at work

Due to baby having a cold, it seemed wise to keep the day quiet until Spider-man arrived back from nursery. We went to a Musical class called Music Bus for a half hour sing-a-long session for babies. The mums and group leader welcomed me with open arms and were positively intrigued by my 'manny' status.

Even after only working as a manny within this family for 6 weeks, I feel both boys know me now. When baby is in a happy mood (which is the majority of the time), he always smiles at me when he sees me in the morning. And when I pick up older brother from nursery, he is always happy to see me and holds my hand all the way back to the car. Unless he sees the ice cream van in the car park. But that's a different story for another day.

Andy Robinson, Working Dad and Tinies Manny

Find more child and parenting related articles on Andy's Huffington Post page.