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<\/p>\nYou\u2019re trying to wrap up a work call while bagging your kid\u2019s outgrown clothes when a ping comes in from a parent chat \u2014 soccer registration just opened and spots are filling fast. School pickup is in 10 minutes, traffic is building, dinner still needs to be figured out, and you cannot deal with one more thing.<\/p>\n
For many Los Angeles families, it\u2019s not one responsibility that is overwhelming; it\u2019s the hundreds of them. The invisible labor can spill into strained marriages, chronic stress and the feeling of constantly treading water. But as it turns out, or perhaps as it should be, there\u2019s a job for that. Some Angelenos are now hiring so-called house managers to shoulder the minutia. <\/p>\n
\u201cAll of a sudden, you\u2019re like, \u2018Oh, I have to hire somebody 20, 30 hours a week to get all this stuff done.\u2019 That\u2019s how much of my time it was taking before,\u201d said David Rudy, talent manager, producer and father of 6-month-old identical twin boys who employs a house manager. \u201cAll of my friends that work in the same field … we have no idea what to do, because we\u2019re drowning in logistics. We need everything, but we don\u2019t know what that is.\u201d<\/p>\n
The rise of households with two working parents combined with frequent work travel and packed kids programming has created a demand for operational support, especially for those without family nearby to help. \u201cYou don\u2019t have mothers, grandmothers, sisters, aunts and uncles … we needed help,\u201d said Rudy, who moved to L.A. from New York.<\/p>\n
House manager job postings are increasingly appearing on Indeed, Care.com or L.A.\u2019s parent communities like PeachheadNanny, advertising pay of $25 to $45 per hour for 10 to 40 hours per week \u2014 signaling that the role is shifting beyond the super affluent to time-strapped dual-income families. The expense, which is similar to the cost of a nanny, may seem excessive, but stretching the family budget is worth the mental load relief for some parents. <\/p>\n
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House manager Sabrina Thompson handles administrative tasks and dinner prep, among other tasks, for Emily Adel and her family. <\/p>\n
(Brittany Elizabeth Brooks\/For The Times)<\/p>\n
What does a house manager do? All the random things<\/p>\n
A house manager comes into the home less like Mary Poppins \u2014 whose focus was on the children \u2014 and more like an octopus whose eight arms pick up all the essential pieces like scheduling overdue date nights, packing lunches, noticing the paper towels are running low or cleaning the cat litter. They\u2019re not a house cleaner and they\u2019re more than a nanny. While they do light cleaning, they typically draw the line at deep scrubbing, and they oversee not just the kids but all the details that keep a household running smoothly.<\/p>\n
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House manager Sabrina Thompson says she focuses on handling tasks before the homeowner notices.<\/p>\n
(Brittany Elizabeth Brooks\/For The Times)<\/p>\n
Social media creator and mother of two Sophie Jaffe<\/a> realized she needed help when her husband was traveling more for work and she found herself driving her kids to different activities across L.A. while managing her business and keeping the house afloat \u2014 all of which became logistically impossible.<\/p>\n Sophie Jaffe doing dishes with her daughter at home. She hired a house manager to remove some of the logistical pressure of home life while also working. <\/p>\n (Brittany Elizabeth Brooks\/For The Times)<\/p>\n \u201cI want to make money and I want to contribute to the family, but there\u2019s literally no way I can do that. I can\u2019t even keep the house in order,\u201d she said. \u201cSo that was when it was kind of like do or die \u2026 and I advocated for myself, I mean, I was losing it.\u201d She soon hired a house manager who would do anything that she herself would do if she had a clone. \u201cIf I had a body double, what would I need that person to do? Like, if I\u2019m out doing all the runarounds, then she\u2019s prepping dinner.\u201d<\/p>\n Emily Adel, chief of staff at a publishing company, remembers watching her mom live a limited life, restrained by demands at home, never traveling even during her \u201cbest years.\u201d She didn\u2019t want to echo that. She hired her house manager to allow her room for joy and to be fully present with her 6-year-old daughter instead of worrying about whether they were running low on laundry detergent. \u201cThe most important change to highlight is the permission to feel like I deserve this help.\u201d<\/p>\n The rise of house managers in L.A.<\/p>\n Kelly Hubbell, founder of Sage House<\/a>, a house manager recruiting firm that serves L.A. families, is on a mission to democratize the job. \u201cIt is so common to have house cleaners, housekeepers … but why isn\u2019t there someone that you can rely on as a second set of hands to do anything you would do for your family?\u201d<\/p>\n The market may be catching up to a demand fueled by working mothers and intensified hands-on parenting. Hubbell\u2019s business was born from tracking the tasks required to run her home and family. The list added up to an entire job \u2014 and a solution to the mental load.<\/p>\n Hubbell\u2019s life changed once she hired a house manager \u2014 including improving her marriage. \u201cIt\u2019s not that my husband and I weren\u2019t splitting it equally. It was just the fact that there weren\u2019t enough hours in the day. This is not a personal failing. It\u2019s an infrastructure type problem and solution.\u201d<\/p>\n Adel runs her home like she operates at work \u2014 she takes on the tasks that leverage her strengths and outsources anything else to her house manager. She enjoys doing drop-off and pickup, using the commute time to help her daughter navigate the kinds of human dilemmas she does professionally, while her house manager tackles dinner prep at home. \u201cI think people could use help that is generalized, that sort of goes outside something that\u2019s so specific and prescriptive.\u201d<\/p>\n Emily Adel, right, and her family at home posing with house manager Sabrina Thompson, left.<\/p>\n (Brittany Elizabeth Brooks\/For The Times)<\/p>\n Her house manager, Sabrina Thompson, both relieves the household logistics and prevents things from piling up, part of the job requirement. \u201cIn a lot of my feedback and check-in conversations, which we have about once a quarter, my ask is you walk around the house twice a week and just tell me what you think needs to change,\u201d Adel said.<\/p>\n Like many house managers, Thompson started as a nanny and expanded into family home operations. \u201cYou have to think three steps ahead and you have to stay calm. You have to prioritize things quickly and adapt. So the main thing that I focus on is just handling things before the homeowner notices.\u201d<\/p>\n Reflecting back on the homes she\u2019s worked in, Thompson said the most rewarding part of the job is the recognition and appreciation she receives from the families. As a mother herself, she understands the value of relief. \u201cI think every person out there needs a house manager because knowing things are being done at home \u2014 it relieves so much stress off of you, it\u2019s insane. The things that you don\u2019t have to think about means that you have more time for traveling, for family, for things that maybe you can\u2019t do on a normal basis.\u201d<\/p>\n Thompson said she often treats her own home like it\u2019s another client. \u201cIf anything, being a house manager has made me more organized at home, but it can also be funny to spend all day managing someone else\u2019s household and then come home to your own laundry and to-do list!\u201d That\u2019s why she\u2019s intentional about working with clients who respect the boundaries she sets around her own time and family.<\/p>\n Could a house manager let you really have it all? Sophie Jaffe, right, and her family pose in their backyard.<\/p>\n (Brittany Elizabeth Brooks\/For The Times)<\/p>\n Paying for a house manager is thought of as buying back time you can reinvest. \u201cMoms, women are like, \u2018I\u2019m realizing that I can have the support in my household, too, that allows me to keep this career I love and be present when I get home,\u2019\u201d Hubbell said, adding that she can now deeply immerse herself in her work. \u201cI\u2019m not thinking about, \u2018Oh no, am I going to order the gift in time for the party on Saturday?\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n Initially, Jaffe struggled with paying for the support. \u201cBack to the mom guilt \u2014 who am I to have someone full-time? A, in scarcity I can\u2019t afford it, and B, I should be the one in the house doing all this stuff myself.\u201d To cover the cost, she used money set aside for babysitters, cleaners and the occasional home organizer. \u201cWhat is the cost that you would associate with enjoying your life and being present to it? I don\u2019t even know what that price tag would be,\u201d Jaffe said. Some AI-powered<\/a> apps<\/a> promise organizational services for busy families at a lower cost, but they can\u2019t provide all the hands-on labor that a house manager does. <\/p>\n Hubbell advocates that the payoff is also about what you avoid losing. \u201cYou\u2019re going to pay for it one way or another \u2014 in your relationships, in your health, mental and physical.\u201d<\/p>\n Rudy now spends some of his reclaimed time binge-watching TV with his wife. \u201cIt\u2019s opened up those little things that we took for granted and given them back to us.\u201d<\/p>\n The missing piece of modern family life<\/p>\n The growing house management sector sheds new light on the unpaid home and childcare labor that has depleted many women, pushing them to exit the workforce<\/a>. \u201cWe have so much on our plates all the time. Your brain never stops, even when you\u2019re sleeping, it never stops,\u201d Thompson said.<\/p>\n Several parents who employ house managers said they wish all families could afford one; that the benefit be seen as normal and not a luxury. \u201cI don\u2019t think this is just for the modern city. It\u2019s for the modern family,\u201d Rudy said. \u201cIt\u2019s helping alleviate all of the invisible stress that exists. You don\u2019t always see it, but it\u2019s there.\u201d<\/p>\n ![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/1789392137_521_.jpeg\")
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