If asked what my main struggle is as a work from home parent, it’s probably juggling and maintaining a proper schedule for us and for our daughter. I recently stumbled upon a site that offers virtual babysitters that can help you out! I really thought it was such a cool business that I decided to check it out.
MyNanai is a recent startup that helps parents working from home to find virtual babysitters and interactive events to entertain their children. It’s meant to create brief breaks for us parents. From my personal experience, as much as we would love to be at our kid’s side 24/7, there are other responsibilities that we also have to do.
About MyNanai
Before I share my daughter’s experience, I asked the founder, Tom Yen, to tell us the story of MyNanai.
Tom: MyNanai is an idea that arose in response to the recent closure of daycare centers and schools. After my son’s daycare closed, my mom started using FaceTime each day to engage my son, read him books, put on puppet shows for him, and even played building games. When I shared that experience with some colleagues, we all got inspired to create MyNanai as a way to help out parents unexpectedly working from home.In a nutshell,
MyNanai is the daycare you need done in a social-distancing-friendly fashion! And that’s our chief mission—to provide kids and their parents with a “daycare” alternative amid this pandemic. But, beyond this, we at MyNanai also provide job opportunities to furloughed employees in the Philippines, who meet our “Nanai” requirements. This mission creates shared value, not just for our dear clients, but also for our employees as well during this trying time.
Ginger: Can you describe your business model, Tom? How do you earn?
Tom: MyNanai isn’t really meant to be a profitable business. Rather, it was created because we saw an opportunity to help parents and furloughed workers during a time of duress. It’s quite possible that MyNanai will simply disappear after the pandemic has ended, and as a group of folks, who just want to help, we’re totally fine with that.
Ginger: Now that you mentioned the pandemic, has it impacted your business in any way?
Tom: Personally, I’ve been very fortunate. I haven’t been impacted anywhere near as significantly as many others. That said, the elimination of daycare has definitely forced me to completely rethink how to juggle the responsibilities of work and family.
I would encourage people to give MyNanai a try and to give us feedback on how we can improve it. This was pulled together in a matter of weeks and we would welcome any suggestions that people are willing to share. For those with friends who may benefit from our service during these crazy times, please tell them about us.
Ginger: Because of the things happening now, what changes will you be implementing in your business?
Tom: At this point, MyNanai is so new that everything is changing! We’re trying to address feedback on the fly and we’re exploring ways to create more engaging and interactive experiences for families out there who are searching for sources of interaction.
To end our interview, Tom’s advice to all business owner is to “Never give up.”
My daughter’s experience
I recently tried MyNanai to keep Zeeka entertained while I was on a call. I was listening during the first few minutes of the call, and I like how Nanai Angeli was trying to get Zeeka to talk and communicate with her.
The part that Zeeka enjoyed the most was they had a trivia on Roblox. Nanai Angeli texted me before the session and asked me what Zeeka liked doing. I mentioned Roblox, and so I think she tried to incorporate it into her time with Zeeka.
I think I would book another session when I need time to focus on an important task.
GIVEAWAY / RAFFLE ALERT!
If you want to try it out, feel free to comment below on why you want to try out this service, and I will raffle off one free 2 hour session to three lucky parents!
For those who want to try a 30 minute session, just use the code GINGERxMYNANAI when booking their service.
To know more about MyNanai and to book virtual babysitters, please visit: https://www.mynanai.com/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ThisIsMyNanai
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thisismynanai/
Love,
P.S. Here is an article that you may have missed 🙂
