They handle 'mom stuff'
‘House managers’ are do-it-all assistants
It takes a village to raise a family. And Upper West Side mom Izzy Anaya is anything but short on support.
Rather than becoming burdened by the daily demands of juggling her three homes, her two sons and a career as a lifestyle content creator, the unflappable mama simply delegates the more menial mustdos to her staff of hired helping hands — and it’s more than just housekeeping.
“I have two house assistants who do everything like take my kids to after-school activities, grocery shop, cook dinner, open my Amazon boxes, fold laundry and stand in line at the post office for me,” Anaya, 44, told The Post of her round-the-clock personal assistants, Phoebe, 23, and Sean, 29.
“I run my house,” the stay-athome wife of a well-to-do businessman insisted. “But having them on call 24/7 to take care of the minutia makes my life less stressful.”
Biz model on the rise
Overworked and overwhelmed mothers like Anaya are saying so long to stress and hello to house managers for the sake of their sanities.
It’s a trendy new form of a domestic helper, which sees the once-distinct roles of housekeeper, nanny and gofer combined into a singular post held by one dutiful doer.
Nearly 23,000 men and women work as do-all aids for families in need across the US, according to Zippia, an online recruitment service.
But the experts found that house managers are in the highest demand in New York City.
Christel Hyden, founder of Marigold Life Works, a personal assistant and house-management service in northern New Jersey and NYC, said she and her staff of 12 are happy to take big and small tasks off of a busy mommy’s plates.
“Literally anything that our clients don’t want to do, don’t have time to do or need a friend’s help, we’re there,” Hyden, 49, a single mom of two teens, told The Post.
In October 2021, she ditched a full-time career in public health to launch the neighborly endeavor.
For $28 an hour, Hyden and her team handle duties such as dogsitting, babysitting, house-sitting, supermarket runs, housekeeping and the occasional kid birthday party drop-off.
“I know what it’s like to have little kids, work, be enrolled in graduate school — moms can’t always do it all and they need a little extra help,” she said. “And I’m glad to provide people with the support I would have wanted when my kids were younger.”
Anaya told The Post that her support staff — Sean, whom she hired via Care.com, and Phoebe, who joined the job through a family reference, both in September 2021 — minimizes her hustle and bustle of Big Apple parenting.
“My sons, Simon and Maximilian, are 9 and don’t need a nanny because they can take care of themselves,” she said. “But when it comes to getting them up, dressed, fed and out the door for a birthday party or a sports activity, having Sean take care of those things has been amazing.
“While he’s running around with the boys, Phoebe’s taking care of the little errands for me like food shopping, closet organizing — literally everything,” added Anaya.
She pays her accommodating aides around $30 an hour and typically calls for their services between one to three days in a given week.
“I couldn’t live without them,” said Anaya. “They have 100% helped me avoid mom burnout.”
No longer ‘drowning’
Onyi Azih, 36, a married mother of two from Houston, felt like she was “drowning” as a wife, mom and full-time health-care professional in the months after the pandemic.
“I was the main breadwinner because my husband lost his job during COVID. I was taking care of the kids, squeezing in everyday tasks for myself, the family and our house,” Azih, a psychiatric physician assistant, told The Post. “I have ADHD, so that made things even more difficult.
“My mental health was struggling, I was constantly nagging my husband and I wasn’t as present for my kids as I wanted to be,” she said.
Nearing her wits’ end in late 2022, Azih turned to local Facebook mommy groups to find house manager Kayla, 24, who’s delightfully lightened her daily load.
“My anxiety has reduced, and I’m not as high-strung since hiring her,” said Azih, who pays Kayla $25 an hour for sporadically helping out in a given week.
“My husband and I can do date nights, I’m at peace knowing the laundry is done, food is in the fridge and that makeup brushes have been cleaned because of Kayla,” she explained.
“I don’t feel like I’m drowning anymore.”