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Book a free call →At home with the kids?
Home full-time, and still falling behind.
A house manager for a stay-at-home parent takes the operations, not the parenting. You're not short of hours at home. You're short of hours that aren't laundry, meals, errands and the hundred things that only you keep track of. A house manager takes the operations so the hours at home go to the children, and to you. It isn't childcare. It's the job behind the childcare.
Many families start part-time.
A weekday morning
The laundry and the errands belong to someone else. The morning is yours.
Stay-at-home families with us run 15 to 30 hours a week.
- 10,000+ families supported
- 90-day guarantee
- Flat fee, never a % of salary
What people are saying
Families on asking for help.
“I am a stay at home mom with 3 kids … I needed someone to help me lighten the load and make time for me to be more present and available for my kids.”
Not childcare
The role is the household: meals, laundry, supplies, errands, the calendar. You keep the parenting. Someone else keeps the list.
Start where it helps
Stay-at-home Sage Haus families run 15 to 30 hours a week, and we've placed roles from six. Own the kitchen and the laundry first; the role grows if it earns it.
Permission
The hardest step for most of these families was deciding help was allowed. The call is a low-pressure place to work that out.
The gap
Being home is not the same as being free.
A parent at home runs a small operation with no staff: procurement, logistics, catering, facilities, scheduling. A house manager takes the operation. The parenting stays yours.
A day now
- School run, then the house: laundry, dishes, resets
- Groceries, errands, returns, the pharmacy
- Meal prep squeezed between pickups
- Appointments, forms, the calendar, the birthday gifts
- Evenings spent catching up instead of winding down
A day with a house manager
- Kitchen stocked, dinner planned and prepped
- Laundry done, house reset while you're at the park
- Errands, returns and supplies handled on a list you don't keep
- Vendors scheduled and let in
- Your hours at home go to the children, and to you
Wondering whether this is 'allowed' on one income? Bring that to the call. It's the most common question we hear.
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 built for a one-income household.
1
Kickoff call with your specialist
We map your actual day and find the hours that aren't parenting.
2
A job description for the operations
Kitchen, laundry, supplies, errands, calendar. Part-time hours that can grow.
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.
Your partner works late?
The evening shift has an owner.
Most of these households have one parent out long hours. The house manager covers the late-afternoon reset and dinner so the evening isn't a second shift.
Thinking of going back to work?
The role grows with you.
Several families hired at home and expanded the hours when a return to work came. See the back-to-work page.
Case studies
Home full-time, and finally caught up.
The Oakden family · Stay-at-Home Parents
Home full-time, and still falling behind.
A stay-at-home parent of three — preschool to primary — with a partner working long hours.
The Yardley family · Stay-at-Home Parents
She kept track of everything. Now someone else does.
A physician and mother of two young boys, carrying both the clinical load and the entire administrative life of the household — while her husband held the home by day and built toward a new career in the evenings.
The Merriweather family · Nanny to House Manager
The nanny had the fun part. They changed who had what.
Three boys aged five and under in a Midwest college town.
The Voss family · Activity-Heavy Family
Being home was the plan. Running a renovation, a business and three teenagers wasn't.
One parent home by choice, building a business while overseeing a large-scale renovation, with three teenagers all starting secondary school that fall and four dogs.
The Quenby family · Nanny to House Manager
They didn't replace the nanny. They rethought the role.
A Northeast family whose nanny years had run their course — the kids older, the needs shifted from childcare toward everything around it.
The Alderton family · Entrepreneurs
One parent runs a business from the house. The other is on the road.
One parent runs a business from home, so the household has to function like an office while the workday happens inside it.
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
What your hours at home are worth.
The calculator lets you value your own time however you like and shows what the household's hours cost you now against a part-time house manager.
- The cost today, including your own time
- A part-time 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.
“I feel like for the first time in years I can finish work and PLAY, just play with my kids. It's finally possible because I asked for help.”
“I can now regularly volunteer in my daughter's classroom and even start taking ballet classes, things that felt completely out of reach before.”
“The kids have an additional friend to be with them when necessary and it is always easier to know that there is another adult to help us at home when we need.”
Questions families ask
Before you book.
Is it reasonable to hire help when I'm home full-time?
Yes, and most of the families on this page asked the same question. Being home means running the household's operations; a house manager takes the operations, not the parenting. Run the calculator to see the hours you'd get back.
Free resource: Pitch in the Kitchen and the calculator
How is this different from a nanny or a mother's helper?
A nanny's job is the children. A house manager's job is the household: meals, laundry, supplies, errands, calendar, vendors. If you want someone to take the kids while you do the house, that's a nanny, and we place those too. If you want to keep the kids and lose the house, that's this.
Free resource: The mental load, explained and time and cost calculator
How many hours do families start with?
Stay-at-home Sage Haus families run 15 to 30 hours a week. We've placed roles from six hours a week; start where it helps most and grow if it earns it.
What will I pay the house manager?
Many stay-at-home households start at 15 hours, so the weekly cost sits at the lower end. 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.
How do you vet candidates?
Vetting is the same whether the parent is home during the hours or not. 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?
Part-time roles are often quicker to fill because the hours suit more candidates. 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 role needs to change once you've lived with it, the guarantee covers it. 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?
Stay-at-home households have come to us from the West Coast to the Midwest. 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 doesn't see why we'd pay for help when I'm home.
It's the most common conversation in these households. Our guide is written for it, and the calculator values your hours at home in numbers you can both see.
Free resource: Pitch in the Kitchen and the calculator