Margaret Owens worked with us for the first few months after our second child was born, and she was a blessing in our lives. We were under a lot of pressure at that time, for we had a high-needs toddler, we were both working full-time and was dad travelling while mom was only able to take a short maternity leave. However, Margaret Owens made everything work out much better than we ever thought possible. She’d come over a few times a week just as the toddler was heading to bed, and we would hand her the baby and some pumped breast-milk and head upstairs for some much needed sleep. Eight hours later we’d wake up to find the baby happy and snug in Margaret’s arms, a little full smile on her face from having drank all her milk — and the living room was even tidied up and the laundry all folded, all those little receiving blankets in neat stacks. It was kind of like that fable of the Elves and the Shoemaker, the one where the Shoemaker wakes up to find all his work done in the night — except this was real. If we ever become billionaires we’ll pay for Margaret Owens to help everyone who ever has a baby, she takes all the stress out of new-parenthood and lets you get some sleep and enjoy the experience, a gift for which we’re still grateful.
Dara and Nathan