Ready when you are.
Book a free call →Always driving to practice?
Three activity calendars. Nobody home at 3pm.
A house manager who owns the afternoon is the hire activity-heavy families need. Practice at four, a different field at five, a recital across town. The afternoon has become a logistics operation and both parents are still at work when it starts. A house manager owns the window from pickup to dinner, the driving, and the calendar that never once overlaps.
Bring the calendar; we'll scope the role around it.
Out the door
Right bag, signed form, snack in hand, and the driving is covered.
Activity-heavy families with us run 20 to 25 hours a week.
- 10,000+ families supported
- 90-day guarantee
- Flat fee, never a % of salary
What people are saying
Families on getting the afternoon back.
“We have extra hands to pitch in to take our kids to afterschool activities, and an extra person to find vendors and make returns.”
3pm to 7pm
The window most of these roles are built around: pickup, driving, snacks, homework supervision, dinner on the table, the house reset before you walk in.
Owns the calendar
Practice schedules, carpools, uniforms, gear, the tournament weekend. One person tracking it instead of two parents texting.
20–25 hrs
Where most activity-heavy Sage Haus families land: afternoons on school days, with a morning or two for the house.
The gap
The afternoon is a job. Give it to someone.
The house manager in these families is part driver, part scheduler, part kitchen. The children's activities stay; the parent who was leaving work early to run them gets the hours back.
The afternoon now
- One parent leaves work early, or a patchwork of sitters and carpools
- Snacks in the car, dinner late, homework at nine
- Gear missing, uniform in the dryer, the form unsigned
- Weekends consumed by tournaments and the catch-up
- The house falls apart between Monday and Friday
The afternoon with a house manager
- Pickup, driving and the activity schedule owned end to end
- Snacks, dinner prepped, the kitchen stocked
- Uniforms, gear and forms ready the night before
- The house reset while the kids are at practice
- Parents home to a running household, not a second shift
Two schools forty minutes apart? That's one of the families below.
Seen enough? Pick a time now.
A free 30-minute group call with a Sage Haus hiring specialist. No obligation, and the fee is covered live.
What you'll get
A search scoped around the calendar.
1
Kickoff call with your specialist
Bring the weekly calendar. We find the hours and the driving the role has to cover.
2
A job description for the afternoon
Pickups, driving, the activity schedule, dinner and the reset. Driving requirements are written into the role.
3
Vetted finalists, interviews arranged
Sourced, screened and interviewed by a person. References and a background check before any offer.
4
Onboarding and a 90-day guarantee
An onboarding call, a six-week check-in, and a one-time re-match within 90 days if the fit isn't right.
Competitive sport?
Six days a week, with travel.
One Los Angeles family had a child training six days a week across the city. The role was built around the driving first, the house second.
Teenagers?
Less childcare, more logistics.
Teens don't need watching; they need driving, feeding and a calendar. These roles are pure household operations.
Case studies
Calendars that never overlap, finally owned.
The Ashby family · Activity-Heavy Family
Two trial lawyers, two kids, a dog, a cat, and a 3:45 pickup.
Two attorneys in the city, with two independent and very funny school-age children whose weeks run from breakdancing to tennis to skateboarding, plus a dog and a cat.
The Kimberline family · Activity-Heavy Family
Two schools, forty minutes apart, one person driving.
Three children enrolled at two schools forty minutes from each other, in a small coastal town in the Northeast.
The Quill family · Activity-Heavy Family
The problem was logistics, full stop.
A parent returning to her own working life, with three children — one of them in a high-commitment competitive sport, training six days a week with travel on top.
The Larkin family · Activity-Heavy Family
Three boys, three activity calendars, and nobody home at 3pm.
A family a year into a relocation, with three boys spanning primary and early secondary — each in a different mix of sport, music and clubs whose schedules never once overlap.
The Ollerton family · Activity-Heavy Family
She wrote the schedule. Sage Haus filled it.
Two full-time working parents in the Southeast with three children — elementary school, preschool and a baby — and an activity calendar spanning softball, tutoring, music, scouts, martial arts and soccer.
The Silverton family · Activity-Heavy Family
They wrote the list. Sage Haus found the person.
A West Coast couple whose brief read like a checklist: laundry, tidying, ad-hoc projects, pantry, dinners and clean-up, with openness to sitting and driving.
Read all the stories at sagehaus.com/case-studies.
Not ready to book? Take the three-minute quiz.
It builds a scope for your family: the hours, the tasks and the kind of role that fits. You get the result straight away.
The numbers
The afternoon, priced.
Sitters, carpools, takeout on practice nights and the hours a parent leaves work early. The calculator adds them up next to a house manager on the afternoon shift.
- The cost today, including your own time
- A house manager at the hours and rate you choose
- Return on the search at one and two years
How the calculator works
- 1What you pay today for sitters, delivery, cleaners and errands, plus the hours you put in yourself
- 2A house manager at the hours and rate you choose, with W-2 costs if you want them
- 3How you find them: a flat fee, an agency percentage, or your own time
- 4The return on the search at one and two years, and the hours you get back
Nothing is filled in for you. Add the Sage Haus fee from your call when you have it.
Book a call
Ready for support?
A free 30-minute call with a Sage Haus hiring specialist. We'll look at your week, tell you honestly what kind of role fits, and if a search makes sense, what it would look like for your family.
More from our families
What changes after the hire.
“Our home feels calm when we walk in at the end of a long day. We're spending more quality time together as a family.”
“For the first time in years I can finish work and PLAY, just play with my kids.”
“We finally have the help we need to enjoy this busy stage of life.”
Questions families ask
Before you book.
Will the house manager drive my children?
Yes, when it's in the job description. Driving requirements, whose car and the insurance are set in the role and the employment agreement; ask on the call how candidates' driving is checked.
Is this a nanny?
Not quite. The children are at school and at practice for most of the hours; the role is the logistics, the driving, the kitchen and the house around them. Supervision at home is part of it; hands-on childcare is not the center.
Free resource: The mental load, explained and time and cost calculator
How many hours do families start with?
Most activity-heavy Sage Haus families land at 20 to 25 hours: school-day afternoons plus a morning or two for the house. Tournament weekends can be scoped in.
What will I pay the house manager?
Afternoon-and-driving roles at 20 to 25 hours sit in the middle of the range. Typically $25 to $50 an hour depending on scope and location, higher in New York and the Bay Area. They're a W-2 household employee; we point you to a payroll partner that handles taxes and pay stubs. Our own fee is covered on the call.
Free resource: time and cost calculator
How do you vet candidates?
Driving requirements are written into the role, and checked. Regional hiring specialists source from local boards and our certified talent pool. Every candidate is screened and interviewed by a human before you meet them. References, a background check and an employment agreement come before any offer, and a one-time re-match is available within 90 days.
How long does it take?
If a new season starts on a date, we work back from it. About four to six weeks from an approved job description to your first candidates. If you have a date in mind, we work back from it.
What if it doesn't work out?
If the activity calendar changes, the guarantee covers a change in the role. A one-time re-match with up to two new candidates inside the first 90 days, no extra fee, provided you did the onboarding call and the six-week check-in with us.
Do you cover my area?
Activity-heavy families have come to us from Chicago, Los Angeles and the Southeast. Families across the United States and Canada, with regional specialists who know the local market. Rural and small-town searches take a little longer; tell us where you are on the call.
My partner thinks carpools and sitters are enough.
Run the calculator together: the sitters, the takeout and the hours a parent leaves work early, next to one role. Then bring them to the call.
Free resource: Pitch in the Kitchen and the calculator