Say Yes To A Sick Day
A parent at half past seven with a child who cannot go to school. Almost nobody offers this.
You are who she finds that morning, and those days are yours to price as you see fit.
For Women Of Wisdom
Become A Mima
You have run a household through every kind of week. You know what to do when a baby will not settle and when a teenager will not speak. Somewhere near you there is a family who needs exactly that.
From today, whether you have grandchildren or none at all, you are a Mima — a woman of fifty or more who has carried a household through every kind of week, and who can walk into somebody else's and make it feel held.
Three You Already Have, And The Rest Is Yours
You have raised people
You love children
You have a skill
Past that, the range is the point. One Mima fills a house with noise and one brings such calm that a busy household settles around her. One arrives in a floral apron and one in the leather jacket she has had for twenty years. One raised six and one raised none. Every one of them is exactly right, and a family reads your own words to know which you are.
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You Are Asked, Never Handed A Form
Questions, one at a time, about the life you have already lived. Speak your answers if you would rather than type them. Skip anything you like and come back to it, or leave it.
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You See Yourself In Your Own Words
Every word waits for you to press the button, and every line waits for your yes. Change it, keep it, or throw it out. Saying no is exactly as easy as saying yes.
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Families Read You, And Write To You
They hear your voice. They read your hand. And when one of them is right, she writes to you herself.
What This Is Worth To You
The Hours You Say Yes To
Are The Hours You Are Found For
You choose what you offer, and each yes puts you in front of a family at the exact moment they need somebody. You are found rather than applying.
Say Yes To A Friday
Somebody going out for the evening, decided at four in the afternoon, and hardly anybody free.
The hardest hours in a week to fill are the best paid, and they are yours to name a figure for.
Free Today
Your morning opens up. One tap on your own page and families close by see you first.
Nothing to remember — it rests on its own that evening.
Your Hours, Your Rate
You say when you are free, what you will take on, and what your time is worth.
Every dollar a family pays you is yours, in full. We never take a cent of it.
Nothing Here Is Asked Of You Twice
You answer once, in your own words, and a family reads you rather than a form. Anything you would rather not do is simply left off, with no reason asked of you and none kept.
Change any of it on any morning, and take a fortnight off whenever you like.
Tell Us What You Carry
Being Seen
$10 a month
Matri Pair is where families come looking for you. Ten dollars a month is what being seen costs. Every dollar a family pays you is yours, in full, always. What you agree with them is between you and them, and it stays that way.
Everything you have learned about children and houses and hard weeks, turned into money in your own name. Income, a bit of independence, and some safety underneath you. You name your hours and you name your rate, and neither has a ceiling on it here.
Free for your first three months.
What To Charge
You name it, and nobody here names it for you. What we can do is show you what the country is actually paying, so you are never guessing at your own worth.
- $25 to $30 an hourAn evening sitter, early in her working life.
- $30 to $40 an hourAn experienced carer. This is where most Mimas belong.
- $37 an hourThe national average for a casual nanny right now, and $38 for a permanent one.
- Above every one of thoseSydney and Melbourne, evenings, weekends, public holidays, and any week you are asked for at short notice.
You are not new at this. However you came to it, you sit at the experienced end of every one of those numbers — and the women who ask for the least here are almost always the ones who have done it longest for free.
Whatever you name, every dollar of it is yours.
Saying a number out loud is the hard part for most women. Say so when you set up your room and somebody will talk it through with you.
What A Family Needs To Know
A family is choosing somebody who will be in their home with their children, so two are asked of every Mima.
- A Working with Children Check, which we confirm with the register in your own state rather than asking you to prove it twice.
- Photo identification, once, so a family knows you are who you say you are.
A first aid certificate is warmly encouraged rather than required. If you would like one and it is still on your list, say so and we will help you find the nearest course.
Four Of These Cost You Nothing At All
Every one is warmly encouraged and each is yours to choose. A family reads what you have gone and learned, and it tells them a great deal about who you are.
- Allergy and anaphylaxis — free. ASCIA runs anaphylaxis e-training for children's education and care at no charge anywhere in Australia. Allergy & Anaphylaxis Australia is where to read further.
- Autism and ADHD — free. Emerging Minds runs a free online course on autistic and ADHDer children and how they experience a room. Positive Partnerships, run by Aspect for the Australian Government, holds free workshops for carers right around the country.
- A child having a hard year — free. Raising Children Network is Australian, free, and the kindest place to start. Emerging Minds has a shelf of free courses beside it.
- Keeping a child safe online — free. The eSafety Commissioner writes for the adult in the house rather than for a school.
- First aid for children. The one here that costs money, and it is worth every dollar. Ask for it by name — HLTAID012, Emergency First Aid Response In An Education And Care Setting. It is written for a house full of children rather than for an office.
And the shortest road of all: ask the parents. A mother trusted with a straight question about her own child will tell you more in ten minutes than any course.
Somewhere Near You, A Family Is Hoping For Somebody Like You.
Your afternoons might change a family's whole week. Your own week might start to look different once the money is yours. And a thousand women doing this changes what a life after fifty is allowed to look like.
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