Hiring a Support Worker

Jude lying in bed

Holiday time

Holy crapbags, it’s half term. How did that happen?! I’m sure it was only New Years Eve last week.

I’m not going to lie, despite the fact I’ve been desperately scrabbling around for half term childcare three ways for the last month, it wasn’t until I drove up to collect Jude yesterday that it dawned on me the holidays start today Arrgghhhhh

I’m working four days a week in the city these days so the shock and reality of working out holiday childcare has become very real. And to add to the drama, we kind of have to sort out two separate childcare scenarios each time. One for the girls and one for Jude.

Our beloved Support Worker Faye is no longer able to look after the boy so we are currently trying to sign up another sucker to become part of our family during holiday times. I’m really lucky in that I can work from home as much as I want and can juggle hours spent in the office, so I don’t need someone all the time. But for example, this half term there are two days out of the five I really need to go into London. SO…Support Worker interviews are about to begin.

I thought it would be interesting to write a list of criteria necessary in order to be Jude’s Support Worker at home. Not the boring qualifications that you’d usually look for of course…this is Jude after all <3

So where to being…

Support Worker criteria

To be Jude’s Support Worker, you need the ability to have the most random of conversations ever. Paper people, echolalia and a cuddly bear called Monkey are all part of Jude’s day to day life. Not forgetting of course, Mr Giraffe. So to be Jude’s Support Worker, you really need to be able to cope with these sorts of chats throughout the day and not fall into a confusion, wondering how your life ended up like this.

You need to be able to also talk about food non-stop for hours on end. “What’s for lunch?” “Is dinner ready?” “I’m hungry.” “What’s in that cupboard?” are all basically on repeat throughout the day.

Ahhhh Ben the dog and Tom the cat. You know those cuddly toy things that copy everything you say? Yep, Jude has a growing collection of them. And just to really annoy House 2, I’ve promised Jude we’d buy a few more this week. Briony – you started this! So if you want to be Jude’s Support Worker, you have to be able to cope with cuddly toys loudly copying everything you say aaaalllll bloody day.

You need to be able to laugh. Jude loves to laugh and has the best laugh ever. Once he’s off, it’s very hard not to follow his lead. So people with a sense of humour only need apply please.

Anyone with a fear of lifts…just don’t even bother.

We need someone well versed in the art of persuasion. Jude needs a little encouragement at times so his Support Worker should be someone who doesn’t accept his initial “no” at face value. Often Jude will say he doesn’t want to do something when deep down he does want to do it. Confusing much?!

Following on from above – our Support Worker will need special mind reading powers to predict the best possible outcome of difficult scenarios. For example, when Jude says no but means yes or when Jude is starting to feel anxious and needs out of his present environment immediately. These are just two very good examples where you need special powers to keep everything running smoothly.