Ann arbor child care: Gretchen’s House Child Development Centers
THE Top 10 Daycares in Ann Arbor, MI | Affordable Prices
Daycares in Ann Arbor, MI
Description:
We serve infants, toddlers, preschool, kindergarten and first through third grade students. We offer before and after-school care, as well as a dynamic theme-based Summer Camp! Contact us for a tour [email protected] or call (734)332-9600. Come in and feel the Christian Montessori School difference!…
Description:
Cuddle Creek Childcare is a diverse, family owned business providing a nurturing environment for children ages 6 weeks and up. We understand the challenge of finding trusted care for your child while you areaway; we also value the importance of a comfortable, home-like setting-where established routines are key and everyone learns through the human experience. We believe play is a child’s work, we believe in respect for all and a child’s right to be included, and we believe that all children can be successful members of society in some fashion. Our family is a myriad of diversity: inter-racial adoption, domestic partnership, special needs, rescue pets, etc. We feel strongly that our unique home-life is a true representation of the world around us, on a micro-level. In addition to the typical child care experiences such as learning to share, achieving developmental milestones, problem solving, teamwork, etc., at Cuddle Creek, your child will witness and practice tolerance, acceptance, kindness, compassion, personal responsibility, self-affirmation, and a host of other invaluable life-skills.
Cuddle Creek Child Care uses the Attachment Theory in our practices with all children. We do not use time-outs or punitive consequences at any time. Our staff have found that redirection and adult support is the most successful approach to encouraging appropriate behaviors in older infants, toddlers, and preschool aged children. In our Infant program, we strive to emulate the routines and schedule you have set as parents, to nurture, protect, and build a secure relationship with your child. With over 35+ combined years of experience, we have come to know that a safe, trusting relationship between caregiver and child must be the foundation to all learning.
Cuddle Creek Child Care provides 2 nutritious snacks daily, plus beverages (water, whole milk). Families are responsible to bring breakfast if applicable and lunch. Infant mealtimes will be discussed during the enrollment process. Families are asked to provide their own diapers only.
As parents ourselves, we know that not all work schedules are typical-so we are proud to offer alternative hours of operation upon request, including weekend care consideration. We are here not only for your child, but to help you make parenthood a successful, enjoyable experience. It takes a village!
Please call us to set up a visit today-we are always open to meeting new friends, and we hope you will decide to stay!…
Apple Playschools
2664 Miller Rd, Ann Arbor, MI 48103
Costimate: $260/wk
Description:
Our Mission:
To provide progressive early education for young children in order to facilitate future social responsibility, diversity, global and environmental awareness through multicultural exposure, natureplay, outdoor learning, collaborative community involvement, and language immersion.
The Apple Playschools Advantage:
Our preschools and kindergarten are play-based and Reggio-inspired. We believe children have many ways of expressing themselves and that they learn better when connecting new information to their interests through play.
Our teachers are co-learners and collaborators, who are constantly learning about our children and best practices in early education through documentation, reflection, and ongoing professional development.
Our non-profit organization supports the social justice branches of respecting authentic childhood, collaborative community involvement, inclusion & equality, environmental education and stewardship, and global citizenship through community events and partnerships, continuing education classes, and scholarship programs.
We believe in the power of PLAY!…
Description:
The Discovery Center has been located on the west side of Ann Arbor since its founding in 1974. Jacki M. began her dream of providing high-quality early childhood programs at the center s original location onNorth Maple Road. In 1984, the center moved to its current facility on South Maple Road that was designed and built to house our programs. The new building gave us the opportunity to expand the center s offerings to three full-day preschool classrooms, a half-day preschool program, and a new kindergarten program. In 2003, we renovated and further expanded our facilities with the addition of a new large motor/gym space, basement storage area, larger parking lot, and fourth full-day preschool classroom.
The Discovery Center has been an accredited program through the National Association for the Education of Young Children since 1993. The family continues to own and operate The Discovery Center in collaboration with the administrative and teaching staff of the center.The mission of The Discovery Center is to provide a high-quality early childhood experience for young children. In order to achieve this, The Discovery Center strives to provide an environment where each child is able to approach optimum physical, social, emotional, aesthetic, and intellectual growth. The classroom environment encourages each child to explore “discovery centers” set up by the staff and to participate in a full range of activities occurring throughout the day. The program is enhanced by outside specialists who provide Spanish, music, and story telling enrichment activities.
Our curriculum has been developed by our staff of professional educators to be consistent with the center s philosophy. Some areas of the curriculum stressed by The Discovery Center are dramatic play, creative art, music, science and nature, math activities, stories and books, self-help skills, world awareness, communication skills, creative movement, social/emotional skills, and outdoor play. Within this framework, the staff works toward providing an optimum amount of attention, affection, stimulation, independence, novelty, and choice of activities for each child. We offer both half day and full day preschool programs and young 5 program options….
Description:
Our Mission
To provide progressive early education for young children in order to facilitate future social responsibility, diversity, global and environmental awareness though multicultural exposure, natureplay, outdoor learning, collaborative community involvement and language immersion.
Our Vision
To foster the values of creativity, compassion, and global citizenship in young children, their families and communities….
LINDA BOULARD
3695 Pheasant Dr, Ann Arbor, MI 48103
Costimate: $260/wk
Description:
LINDA BOULARD is an establishment situated in Ann Arbor, MI that is providing services for the students in the community. This child care organization currently admits young children in the surroundingneighborhood ranging from 0 to 204 months old. This child care started their operations in the year 1997 and is now having a maximum capacity of twelve students in their center….
Description:
Believing that the children are learning best through the play process, Children’s Creative Center Inc in Ann Arbor, MI encourages self-discipline, independence, and autonomy while promoting appreciation,humor, gaiety, and laughter. They stimulate the educational process through hands-on, practical, and creative activities while encouraging the total development and growth. …
Description:
Preschool Little Blue is a childcare and education provider that serves the community of Ann Arbor MI. It offers a fun learning environment and uses High Scope Curriculum that boosts the intellectual, social,and emotional skills of infants, toddlers, and preschoolers. The facility promotes active learning by providing play-based activities that allow children to explore, discover, and learn….
Description:
Our program seeks to provide the care and nurturing necessary for your child?s healthy growth and development. We also strive to assist your child’s intellectual and social growth, in preparation forkindergarten. We look forward to working closely together with you to provide a happy place where your young child can flourish. We believe that children can play and learn together in a nurturing and stimulating environment with a developmentally appropriate and challenging curriculum. We offer a rich playschool experience with many one on one experiences, and a friendly, comfortable atmosphere where children and their families can flourish. …
Description:
Peach Tree Montessori International is a state licensed child care provider located at 319 N Ashley St, Ann Arbor, MI that has been in the child care business for 37 years. Their center offers full-time andpart-time child care for infants, toddlers, preschoolers, and kindergarten….
Little Folks Corner
4850 Dexter Ann Arbor Rd, Ann Arbor, MI 48103
Costimate: $260/wk
Description:
Little Folks Corner in Ann Arbor, MI offers an enriching, secure, loving, and warm atmosphere in a unique setting where the children have fun while growing and learning. This child care organization provideshands-on activities that include weather, gardening, hiking, and insects. This child care establishment measures the children’s cognitive, social, and emotional development….
Description:
Established in 1977, Doughty Montessori School is a child care facility located at 416 S Ashley St. Ann Arbor, MI. They offer services for children ranging from 2.5 years up to 6 years of age. They focus tofoster a peaceful, competent and responsive children who are life long learners….
Description:
Allen Creek Preschool in Ann Arbor, Michigan, provides a quality, developmentally appropriate educational opportunity for children. The school serves children from toddler, preschool, pre-k, creative art, afterschool, summer class that provides them with a balance of child-initiated and teacher-initiated activities. The school’s program aims to develop the whole child and his/her physical, social, emotional and intellectual growth….
Description:
The Sunshine Special in Ann Arbor, Michigan, provides a quality, developmentally appropriate educational opportunity for children. The school serves children from two and half to seven years old that providesthem with a balance of child-initiated and teacher-initiated activities. The school’s program aims to develop the whole child and his/her physical, social, emotional and intellectual growth. …
Description:
The Sunshine Special in Ann Arbor, Michigan, provides a quality, developmentally appropriate educational opportunity for children. The school serves children from two and half to seven years old that providesthem with a balance of child-initiated and teacher-initiated activities. The school’s program aims to develop the whole child and his/her physical, social, emotional and intellectual growth….
Ann Damon
3901 Ann Arbor Saline Rd, Ann Arbor, MI 48103
Costimate: $260/wk
Description:
Established in 1979, Ann Damon is a child care facility located at 3901 Ann Arbor Saline Rd. Ann Arbor, MI. They provide a safe, secure and healthy environment for children. They seek to improve and enhance thechild’s mental, physical, emotional, intellectual and social behavior….
Susan Parker
1712 Barrington Pl, Ann Arbor, MI 48103
Costimate: $260/wk
Description:
Susan Parker offers quality child care services and enrichment learning programs to young children. This child care organization in Ann Arbor, MI nurtures the necessary skills to students while promotingvalues, love, and respect. They support the holistic growth and development in a stimulating, clean, secure, and safe environment where they educate the kids while having fun….
Forest Storybook
817 Edgewood Pl, Ann Arbor, MI 48103
Costimate: $260/wk
Description:
Forest Storybook promotes values, love, and respect while nurturing the students with the necessary skills and education. This child care organization in Ann Arbor, MI provides the children with enrichmentlearning programs and age-appropriate curriculum while having fun. They feature a stimulating, safe, clean, and secure environment while supporting the kids’ holistic growth and developments….
Manzanitas
511 Miller Ave, Ann Arbor, MI 48103
Costimate: $260/wk
Description:
Manzanitas is a childcare and learning facility located at 511 Miller Avenue, Ann Arbor, Michigan. It is a Spanish language immersion preschool that caters to the children’s growth and developmental needs. Theschool can accommodate up to 30 children, and it operates from Mondays through Fridays 9:00 AM to 3:00 PM. Manzanitas exposes children to a variety of academic, Spanish literature and arts activities that help children enhance their intellectual and social skills….
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FAQs for finding daycares in Ann Arbor
In 2022 what type of daycare can I find near me in Ann Arbor, MI?
There are a variety of daycares in Ann Arbor, MI providing full time and part-time care. Some daycares are facility-based and some are in-home daycares operated out of a person’s home. They can also vary in the degree of education and curriculum they offer. Additionally, some daycares offer bilingual programs for parents that want to immerse their children in multiple languages.
How can I find a daycare near me in Ann Arbor, MI?
If you are looking for daycare options near you, start several months in advance of when you need care for your child. Care.com has 26 in Ann Arbor, MI as of September 2022 and you can filter daycares by distance from Ann Arbor or your zip code. From there, you can then compare daycare rates, parent reviews, view their specific services, see their hours of operation and contact them through the website for further information or to request an appointment.
What questions should I ask a daycare provider before signing up?
As you visit daycare facilities in Ann Arbor, MI, you should ask the providers what their hours are so you can be prepared to adjust your schedule for drop-off and pick-up. Ask what items you are responsible for bringing for your child and what items you may be required to provide that will be shared among other children or the daycare staff. Also, make sure to check directly with the business for information about their local licensing and credentials in Ann Arbor, MI.
Childtime of Ann Arbor in Ann Arbor, MI | 4220 Plymouth Road
Your School Childtime of Ann Arbor, MI
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Childtime of Ann Arbor, MI
Welcome to Our School
Welcome to our Childtime Learning Center, an educational daycare in Ann Arbor, MI – here since 1995!
My name is Angel and I am the school director her at Childtime! I have a Master of Arts in Early Childhood Education from Eastern Michigan University and a Bachelor of Science in Family Community Services from Michigan State University! I am pleased to be here working and interacting daily with a wonderful group of families, children and staff! I have been working professionally with children and their families for 15 years!
Here at Childtime, we focus on educating the whole child. We provide a nurturing and safe environment for your child to grow and develop as they progress through our School Readiness Pathway. From Infancy to Preschool through Pre-K, we have a curriculum that will meet your children’s developmental needs and prepare them for Kindergarten.
We are accredited through the National Early Childhood Program Accreditation. Accreditation assesses our overall program, teacher training/qualifications, parent and community involvement, and safety practices. We receive the award every three years and continue to meet the needs of accreditation standards.
We’re committed to keeping you connected throughout the day while your child is in our care. Get access to live streaming video of your child’s classroom, plus other real-time updates, with our exclusive mobile app for families, SproutAbout.
I look forward to your visit and showing you why our Childtime Learning Center is the premier child care in Ann Arbor, MI! Call to schedule your tour today and become a part of our Childtime family.
Here’s what people have to say
4.9 out of 5 stars
It’s been wonderful. The teachers and staff are amazing and I know they care for my children and their well-being.
Verified Shopper
As a first time single mom, the staff have made the transition so easy for me and my daughter. Easy and effective communication.
rachelmoody
We love the director, assistant director, and the teachers for our child! Everyone is extremely welcoming, have great and continuous communication, and provide a safe/effective growing environment!
anndecker
The staff at our location are incredibly warm and kind. My child and I feel very welcome and like a part of the family.
Verified Shopper
We’ve generally been very happy. The staff have been very responsive to our concerns, and our child seems to enjoy being there.
Verified Shopper
We’re very happy with the teachers and facilities as well as the nutrition and academic program.
Verified Shopper
We’re very happy with the teachers and facilities as well as the nutrition and academic program.
Verified Shopper
The most important thing to any parent is their child’s safety. And that importance compounds exponentially when the parent is asking another person to provide that safety. I feel comfortable every single time I drop off and pick up my child from daycare. The staff treats my child as if they were their own. They treat me like family as well, sharing their life experiences and bright ideas, as if we’ve
. ..
been friends forever. ChildTime is accommodating of my needs, but more importantly, my child’s needs. My child learns so much at ChildTime, not just about academics and physical growth. But also about social development by interacting with other children of the same age, slightly older, and all the way up to adults. I know my child has grown mentally, physically, & emotionally because of time spent at ChildTime.
Read More
Verified Shopper
The most important thing to any parent is their child’s safety. And that importance compounds exponentially when the parent is asking another person to provide that safety. I feel comfortable every single time I drop off and pick up my child from daycare. The staff treats my child as if they were their own. They treat me like family as well, sharing their life experiences and bright ideas, as if we’ve
…
been friends forever. ChildTime is accommodating of my needs, but more importantly, my child’s needs. My child learns so much at ChildTime, not just about academics and physical growth. But also about social development by interacting with other children of the same age, slightly older, and all the way up to adults. I know my child has grown mentally, physically, & emotionally because of time spent at ChildTime.
Read More
Verified Shopper
wonderful staff always full of positivity and smiles all the children seem well behaved and engage well. Great social interacting. I feel great leaving my child in their care.
Verified Shopper
Grow Your Connection
With SproutAbout, you won’t miss a thing when your child is at school with us. Take a peek at the engaging experience provided by our new app.
Learn About Electives
For an additional fee, go beyond regular classroom learning experiences with our enhanced series of fun, interactive enrichment programs exploring a variety of activities. We offer:
Soccer, Music, Yoga, Spanish, Phonics, Handwriting & Advanced Math
Proud to be Accredited!
We’ve been recognized as a high-quality early education program.
Open a window to your child’s day.
SproutAbout®, our exclusive family app, provides free live streaming video of your child’s classroom to your mobile device.
Learn More
Meet Our Staff
Angel, Director
Education: Master of Arts in Early Childhood Education, Bachelor of Science in Family Community Services
Certifications: CPR/AED, First Aid, Medication Administration Training
I have over 15 years of experience working with children from infants to school age. I absolutely LOVE what I do, daily!
Meet Our Staff
Gini, Assistant Director
Education: Bachelor of Arts in Drawing; Associate of Arts in Liberal Arts; Associate’s Degree in Childcare Professionals
Certifications: CPR/AED, First Aid, Shaken Baby and Safe Sleep
I love working daily with children and their families! I’m excited to be the assistant director at this wonderful school.
Local School Phone Number: 734.332.0062734.332.0062
License #: DC810294578
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Ann Arbor KinderCare | Daycare, Preschool & Early Education in Ann Arbor, MI
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Ann Arbor KinderCare
Welcome to Ann Arbor KinderCare
Welcome to Ann Arbor KinderCare in Michigan! Conveniently located near Washtenaw Avenue, our center holds the perfect mix of veteran and new teachers. Through our hands-on learning approach to education, students are able to gain the skills they will need for success in school and beyond. We build a welcoming environment for all students regardless of their backgrounds, abilities, and experiences. We love our circle of families and meeting new friends!
Our classrooms are places to thrive!
In our safe and healthy classrooms, your child will be engaged in learning experiences that meet them where they are, both socially and academically. With fun daily activities, passionate teachers, and great friends, a lifetime of confidence starts here. Contact the center director to learn more about our child care options and schedule a tour!
Meet Faith Griffey, Our Center Director
Meet Faith Griffey! She is the Center Director at Ann Arbor KinderCare in Michigan. Faith attended Rasmussen College, where she earned a Child Development Associate credential. She has been with KinderCare since 2001, starting as a toddler teacher. Every day, Faith looks forward to meeting new families and helping children discover their true potential. “While we try to teach our children all about life, our children teach us what life is all about.” – Angela Schwindt. Outside of work, Faith enjoys photography and creating fun memories with her family.
- Ann Arbor KinderCare Programs
- Our Teachers
- Family Stories
- FAQs
AMERICA’S MOST ACCREDITED
We’re so proud!
Nationally only 10% of daycares are accredited – nearly 100% of our learning centers are. That’s a big difference,
and that means KinderCare kids are getting the very best. Here’s why.
SCHOOL-READY
What Learning Looks Like
Our talented early-childhood teachers set kids down the path toward becoming lifelong learners in a positive, safe, and nurturing environment.
Ann Arbor KinderCare Programs
Infant Programs (6 weeks–1 year)
Leaving your baby in someone else’s care is a big step. Everyone at our
centers—most importantly, our naturally gifted infant teachers—will work with
you to make sure the transition goes smoothly. When you step into our infant
classroom, you’ll see how much we want your infant to feel safe, loved, and
ready to explore their world.
Toddler Programs (1–2 Years)
Everything in our toddler classroom is designed for little explorers. That’s
because a lot is going on at this age. When your child is wandering all over the
place, that means they’re learning and discovering new things every day. We’ll
help them explore their interests (and find new ones!) as they play and learn.
Discovery Preschool Programs (2–3 Years)
This age is filled with so much wonder and curiosity. That’s why we offer a ton
of books and toys and bring artwork down to kids eye level. Children in
discovery preschool also begin to learn how we all work together in a
classroom. Simple math and science, pretend play, and group play help them
get used to a more structured school setting.
Preschool Programs (3–4 Years)
This age is all about expression, when kids really start to form their own ideas
about what they want to play and how they want to create. Every day in our
preschool classroom, your child will explore science experiments, create
artwork, and play pretend—all the skills needed for their big next step:
kindergarten!
Prekindergarten Programs (4–5 Years)
When you walk into one of our pre-K classrooms, you’ll see artwork and
writing displayed around the room. Labels are everywhere to help kids connect
letters with words. You’ll also see pictures on the walls that reflect the families
in our community. Your child will also deepen their knowledge in language,
math, science, Spanish, and social skills.
Participating Child Care Aware Center
KinderCare partners with Child Care Aware® of America to offer fee assistance for
Active Duty military families and flexible support to fit their needs when care at a Child
Development Center on the installation is not available.
Learning Adventures – Enrichment Program
Cooking Academy™ (3 – 12 Years)
In Cooking Academy, kids learn new recipes from cultures around the world and
develop a healthy relationship with food. They’ll whip up everything from Southwest
rainbow lettuce wraps to pumpkin muffins, building their skills in STEM, communication,
and more along the way. And yes—little chefs get to eat their culinary creations!
Music Explorers™ (2 – 4 Years)
KinderCare families are already giving a standing ovation to our newest Learning
Adventures program: Music Explorers! Kids will learn to sing, move, listen, play
instruments, and even create their own tunes. Our original curriculum blends math,
science, social studies, literacy, and mindfulness (think yoga!) for a uniquely KinderCare
way of learning the foundations of music.
Phonics Adventures® (2 – 4 Years)
Learning how to read is a whole lot of fun at KinderCare! We help kids grow to love
books and words (and get ready for kindergarten) in our Phonics Adventures program.
From discovering the basics of vowels to practicing poetry, kids learn all about letters
and sounds in small-group lessons made just for their age group. (Bonus: Kids who
attend our phonics program are more prepared than their peers for school—and we
have the data to prove it. )
Our Teachers
We’re the only company in early childhood education to select teachers based on natural talent. Being a great educator isn’t enough though.
KinderCare teachers are also amazing listeners, nurturers, boo-boo fixers, and smile-makers. Put more simply,
we love our teachers and your child will, too.
Meet just a few of our amazing KinderCare teachers!
A KINDERCARE TEACHER WITH
An Artist’s Heart
“My classroom is full of art!” says Mary Annthipie-Bane, an award-winning early childhood educator at KinderCare. Art and creative expression, she says, help children discover who they really are.
We put our best-in-class teachers in a best-in-class workplace. We’re so proud to have been named one of Gallup’s 37 winners of the Great Workplace Award.
When you put great teachers in an engaging center, your children will experience
an amazing place to learn and grow.
Family Stories
Don’t take our word for it. Hear what our families have to say about our amazing center!
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We absolutely love our Teachers at the Ann Arbor KinderCare! They take excellent care of our son. He has learned so much and has made plenty of friends.
Jeff & Nell R. – KinderCare Parent
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Our 17-month-old has attended KinderCare since November of 2012 and we couldn’t be happier with his experience. The bright and enthusiastic teachers create a positive learning environment that our son has flourished in. The center is clean and vibrant. The Director and Assistant Director are frequently found in the classrooms actively participating in activities.
Fred & Teresa R. – KinderCare Parent
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We absolutely love the Teachers and Staff at the KinderCare of Ann Arbor. They treat us like family and are apart of our family. We couldn’t have asked for a better environment to help us raise our children.
Ryan and Janet Neice – KinderCare Parent
Share Your Story
If you have a story about your experience at KinderCare,
please share your story with us
.
Who Are KinderCare Families?
They hail from hundreds of cities across the country from countless backgrounds, and proudly represent every walk in life. What our families have in common,
though, is the want to give their children the best start in life. We are so proud to be their partner in parenting.
Hear from just a few of our amazing KinderCare families.
A Globe-Trotting Family Finds A
Home in Houston
Four young children, four different passports, two languages, two full-time jobs…oh, and a few triathlons thrown in for good measure.
Meet the globe-trotting Colettas—a family on the go.
Frequently Asked Questions
What accreditations does KinderCare have?
We are your trusted caregiver. Our centers are state-licensed and regularly inspected to make sure everything meets or exceeds standards, including child-to-teacher ratios and safe facilities. Our centers aren’t just licensed—most are accredited, too! Find out more.
Do you offer part-time schedules at Ann Arbor KinderCare?
Everybody’s schedule is different. We’re happy to offer quality, affordable part-time and full-time childcare. Drop-in care may also be available. Reach out to your Center Director to learn more.
How does naptime work at Ann Arbor KinderCare?
Our teachers meet every child’s needs during naptime. Our teachers know how to get babies to nap. In fact, they are pros at getting children of any age to nap. Visit our article on “10 Ways We Help Kids Get a Great Daycare Nap” to learn more.
Do you support alternative diets?
We strive to be as inclusive as possible. To that point, we provide a vegetarian option at mealtime, take care to not serve common allergens and can adapt menus based on your child’s food sensitivities. If your child has additional needs, we’ll work with you to figure out a plan.
Are meals included in tuition? Can I choose to send my child with lunch?
We provide nutritious meals and snacks developed by a registered dietician to meet the needs of rapidly growing bodies and minds. If your child has special dietary requirements and you would prefer to bring in their lunch, please make arrangements with the center director.
Does my child need to be potty-trained?
Every child begins toilet learning at a different age. Until your child shows an interest in toilet learning, we’ll provide diaper changes on an as-needed basis. When your child shows an interest, we’ll discuss how to work together to encourage toilet learning.
In Home Child Care | Nanny Services and Backup Care
Backup Child Care & Nanny Services
Helping Parents With Virtual Learning & Online School!
As more and more schools go virtual for the remainder of the school year, we are here to help families who have young, school-age children who need help navigating online school work.
If your children need help with online classes, contact us to discuss your needs. We can provide this service on top of our normal child care services.
Professional In-Home Child Care Services
Safe at Home is a professional in-home child care agency for families that could benefit from an alternative to traditional daycare or simply need backup child care when unexpected events occur.
We are headquartered in Ann Arbor, MI and proudly serve families across Southeast Michigan with child care at home they can count on by providing professionally trained and screened sitters, nannies and backup child care specialists.
Choose The In-Home Child Care Option That Best Fits Your Needs!
Safe At Home has many options to fit your specific child care needs including backup child care, date night services, ongoing nanny services, nanny share options, and care for corporations and special events.
Whatever your needs, the team at Safe At Home Child Care has you covered.
We get it, life happens! – your regular nanny is suddenly unavailable, your child’s daycare has an unexpected closing, or your employer schedules you for a last-minute business trip – whatever the case, we are here to provide you with the backup child care you need.
Safe At Home has helped thousands of families with their backup child care needs. Contact us today!
Need a night out? Schedule a date night!
We provide child care services 24/7 and 365 days a year. We can take requests from 4 hours in advance up to 4 weeks in advance. Contact us today to schedule child care for your next date night.
For the moments you can’t be there, our professionally trained nannies will keep your child Safe At Home. Whether it is full or part-time, having a reliable and trustworthy nanny for your in-home child care needs is extremely beneficial.
We will help you find the perfect nanny for your ongoing child care needs! Contact us today.
Safe At Home’s Nanny Share Program gives you the same benefits of your own nanny at a fraction of the cost. If you have friends or family that would like to combine your nanny services at one location, we will accommodate your needs so you can save on the overall cost of child care at home.
Contact us today to discuss your needs and we will create a custom nanny share plan for you and your family and friends.
Transform your workforce and give employees peace of mind. Support your employees beyond the workforce and attract top candidates by providing quality in home care during critical moments to maximize performance and retention.
We proudly provide the University of Michigan, Ford Motor Company, Michigan State University and other great organizations with their employees’ child care needs.
All Our Childcare Providers are
Pediatric First Aid, CPR & AED Certified
All our nannies and sitters are trained and qualified by our team of professionals. To provide you with extra peace of mind, all our child care specialists are Pediatric First Aid, CPR, AED certified.
Each specialist renews their certification every two years through the American Heart Association®. They are also required to complete The American Red Cross Advanced Child Care Class.
Keeping Families Safe At Home During Covid-19
Learn More About Our Policies & Procedures During Covid-19
Our Safe At Home team, in conjunction with our parent company, Kennedy Care, created a comprehensive plan to reduce the risk of Covid-19. We are taking this matter very seriously and will continue to do so as long as there is a risk to our child care specialists and our client families.
Our dedicated management team has put in place the steps for navigating our clients and child care specialists through these uncertain times. We remain confident we are doing everything we can to keep families safe by providing them with care in the comfort of their own homes.
Happy Families
Safe At Home Child Care has proudly served thousands of families across Michigan. Here are what some of them have to say about us!
“This experience was all around wonderful! It was our first time needing backup care for our baby. We were pleasantly surprised at how easy this was and, most importantly, how great the care was.”
– Stephanie from Ann Arbor, Michigan
“Our caregiver was outstanding! She was professional, thoughtful, courteous; she went above and beyond. She is really amazing!”
– Carla V. from Detroit, Michigan
“We have not used this program before, but would definitely use it again. Breanna was extremely helpful and prompt with the scheduling.
Lisa was very nice, brought crafts for my daughter to work on and was extremely attentive. We were happy to have her over!
– Erin R. From Saline, Michigan
“Breanna assisted my family right away, and on short notice. I can’t tell you how much appreciated I am for Breanna! Rachel was absolutely perfect with the care of our 6 children! I heard our family may have been the largest the organization has ever taken on under one provider. Rachel provided the absolute best care for our kids, and my kids adored her! Thank you so much!!”
– Jesse M. From Ann Arbor, Michigan
Contact Us Today!
Call Us! (800) 790-7233
Meet Our Team
Join Our Team
Everbrook Academy of Ann Arbor in Ann Arbor, MI | 2380 Oak Valley Drive
Your School Everbrook Academy of Ann Arbor, MI
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Everbrook Academy of Ann Arbor, MI
Welcome to Our School
Welcome to Everbrook Academy of Ann Arbor, MI; educating children ages six weeks to 12 years. At Everbrook Academy, we focus on the development of the whole child through our 21st century, STEAM-based curriculum. Each day your child will be engaged in educational activities that take place in a secure, caring, and enriched environment. We treat each child and parent with understanding and respect, while being responsive to your individual needs and expectations.
We provide stimulating, hands-on learning experiences that support each child’s unique strengths. Utilizing the STEAM approach to curriculum, Infants through Pre-Kindergarten classrooms utilize research-based developmental indicators, which ensures consistency and growth in the learning experiences throughout a child’s time with us, regardless of when they start.
Our highly qualified team of educators have over 275 years of experience. Through ongoing training and continual professional development, our teachers offer children exceptional learning opportunities with nurturing guidance.
We’re committed to keeping you connected throughout the day while your child is in our care. Get access to live streaming video of your child’s classroom, plus other real-time updates, with our exclusive mobile app for families, SproutAbout.
We encourage you to visit our Everbrook Academy in Ann Arbor to experience all we have to offer your child and family. We cannot wait to meet you!
Here’s what people have to say
5 out of 5 stars
I love everything about this school. It is so clean, safe and all the staff is very friendly. My daughter learns so much every day and seems so advanced. She is an only child and I love how she interacts and learns with other children. The teachers are so friendly and she has loved all the teachers!
Verified Shopper
We love Everbrook, they are welcoming, caring and truly care for the kids in their care. I trust them 100% and would not go anywhere else.
Verified Shopper
We love Everbrook! It has been a wonderful place where my children learn to explore through learning and continue to grow in their independence during learning. We value social emotional progress as much as academic and we have found that most lead teachers imbed this principle in their daily teaching.
Verified Shopper
Great! Teachers care about our kids.
Verified Shopper
Terrific school. Our son loves the environment, his teachers and friends from school.
Verified Shopper
I love this school so does our son. He has friends he is excited to see his teachers everyone is so nice and they really care about my son
Verified Shopper
Wonderful and loving place with lovely staff. My child loves being in this excellent environment. Thank you!
Verified Shopper
In 6 years I have never left my kids with anyone but grandparents and their elementary school/preschool. I felt so safe and confident in the care offered at Tutor Time. Thank you, I wish I had found you sooner as I could have really used a break these last 6 years!!!
Verified Shopper
The mobile infant room has been a wonderful time for my child to grow and learn with friends and teachers.
Verified Shopper
Grow Your Connection
With SproutAbout, you won’t miss a thing when your child is at school with us. Take a peek at the engaging experience provided by our new app.
Open a window to your child’s day.
SproutAbout®, our exclusive family app, provides free live streaming video of your child’s classroom to your mobile device.
Learn More
Meet Our Staff
Adrienne Bogedain, Principal
Education: M.A. in Education Administration
Certifications: Montessori Early Childhood
I joined the company in 2018, bringing with me 20 years of experience in the education field. My knowledge of quality programming, accreditation, and administrative leadership is the driving force behind my school’s success.
Meet Our Staff
Erin Martin, School Education Manager
Education: B.A. in Education with Z.A. Endorsement in Early Childhood
I knew from a young age that I wanted to be an educator, and my love of children and giving nature made me a perfect fit. I have been with the school for four years and enjoy the benefit of seeing my son grow here everyday.
Local School Phone Number: 734.996.9352734.996.9352
License #: DC810250263
TOP
Elected officials, child care providers talk state of child care in Washtenaw County
Michigan Caregivers and Student Parents (MCaSP) sat down with elected officials and child care providers on Friday evening to discuss the state of child care in Washtenaw County. The panel discussed how the pandemic affected and revealed disparities in the availability of child care and the need for increased federal and state funding.
MCaSP, a University of Michigan student organization sponsored by the Center for the Education of Women+, aims to bring student parents together and support their education through advocating for equitable resources. LSA senior Jessica Pelton, MCaSP president and parent, helped organize the panel and said the momentum to support child care funding from state and county-wide representatives is present and integral for University faculty and student parents.
“(We need to know) what other help we can get so we can also tie in changes at the University level and make a difference,” Pelton said. “Because we’ve heard of various funding sources, like the Tri-Share model … if the University of Michigan utilized that, that might make a difference.”
Since the start of the school year, student parents at the University have also experienced difficulties in managing in-person classes alongside parenting. The removal of before- and after-school programming in Ann Arbor has led parents to scramble for other options, including enrichment programs that are not run by licensed childcare providers and are therefore not subsidized through the University.
In May, AAPS superintendent Jeanice Swift announced that the School Age Child Care Program would not be offered during the 2021-2022 school year due to COVID-related concerns and staffing shortages. The decision generated backlash from AAPS parents, leading Liz Lin, local child care advocate and Ann Arbor Public Schools parent, and AAPS parent Andrea Huang to co-author a petition to resume the program. The petition currently has more than 1,100 district-parent signatures.
Lin and LSA senior Catherine Hadley, MCaSP vice president and student parent, co-hosted and also helped organize the panel event. Lin said while the COVID-19 pandemic emphasized how critical child care infrastructure is for working parents, the need for child care in Washtenaw County has been an ongoing issue.
“Child care centers are so strapped for cash and strapped for staff, and families feel more stressed than ever because costs are so high,” Lin said. “So we felt like it was really important to get providers and families and elected in the same room and start this conversation about how we can all work together to solve this issue that is currently in full-blown crisis mode.”
Hadley said the pandemic caused millions of women to leave the workforce. She said funding viable child care options is a key economic tool for encouraging and supporting their return.
“In my opinion, child care is a public good that we’re treating as a private good, and because of that everyone is suffering,” Hadley said. “Providers can’t make ends meet, the workers are not being paid a living wage, and then we can’t get child care.”
Panelist and City Councilmember Linh Song, D-Ward 2, said the cancellation of child care programs in the spring exposed how necessary child care is to the Ann Arbor workforce. Affected residents and essential workers did not have the means to hire nannies or other support, Song said.
“I mean, there are certain realities in our city here,” Song said. “We’re the eighth most (socioeconomically) segregated community in the country. We’re in a state that refuses to invest in public education. We’re in a district where a quarter of our children live at or below the poverty line. And the pandemic has especially wreaked havoc on our BIPOC families.”
In terms of pandemic recovery, Song said the city aims to foster conversations with residents. Song also said they have suggested contributing some funds to agencies that address homelessness and organizations involved with schools to provide child care and other support.
“We also should look at how other districts in our county are functioning during the pandemic, and we can learn from them and also support them,” Song said. “Ann Arbor is not an island upon itself. Sometimes we are, but it’s pretty clear that we rely on folks, especially women, who’ve committed to providing child care (and) have taken the burden on themselves for generations now. ”
Laura Stidham, Community Day Care executive director, said a total of 30 daycare centers and home care centers closed in Washtenaw County during the pandemic. She said starting and running a daycare business generates significant costs, from installing fire-rated doors to creating a parking lot.
“It is hugely expensive, so it’s not going to be a small business loan,” Stidham said. “It’s going to be between $100,000 and a million at least. The center that we built at Towsley Children’s House costs $5 million and that serves 150 children.”
County Commissioner Andy LaBarre also said child care providers are inadequately compensated for valuable work. He said workers often work long hours, ranging from 10-12 hours a day for $9-$12 an hour. Additionally, when workers sign contracts, they may be excluded from the living wage ordinance put into place 20 years ago.
“It’s a poverty wage for a vital, in some cases, life or death job. It’s terrible,” LaBarre said.
On Sept. 22, Gov. Gretchen Whitmer signed a bill for $1.4 billion to go toward making child care more affordable and accessible. The bill was put into place on Oct. 1 and is expected to provide care for 105,000 more children at low or no cost.
Jennie McAlpine, senior director of Work-Life Programs at the University, said the grant could be used for long-term pay raises for child care providers.
“I think it’s going to need to be systemic. It needs to be a millage,” McAlpine said. “It needs to be a regular tax just like we pay for our schools and until people include education from birth, that’s not going to happen.”
State Rep. Yousef Rabhi, D-Ann Arbor, said since he began working in the Michigan House of Representatives in 2017, he has seen the continued deprioritization of education. He said the passing of the bill has shown that education has begun to be prioritized across the aisle and is an important piece in a legislation package focused on child care.
“This package, it’s really focused around helping child care provider organizations,” Rabhi said. “To apply for their licenses, to streamline that process and really create networks by which they can collaborate and communicate and share resources to strengthen that quite a bit. So that was a really positive step.”
State Sen. Jeff Irwin, D-Ann Arbor, said while child care is a tremendous struggle for most families, it is especially hard to navigate for families with fewer resources and less flexibility in their working lives. He said he believes it is important to acknowledge the devaluation of emotional and physical work that parents, especially women, do in the country.
“If you look at nursing versus doctors, … at some of the home health workers who have been fighting on the front lines in these last couple years — we devalue these jobs, we pay these people wages that are criminally low,” Irwin said. “And then we wonder why the system doesn’t work.”
Daily Staff Reporters Vanessa Kiefer and Emily Li can be reached at [email protected] and [email protected].
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Andrea S.
Live-in housekeeper wants to join our family
GENERAL INFORMATION We are looking for a housekeeper who knows how to cook and clean. Driving and English are not required but helpful. We are a family of 3 with 2 older kids who come home from college from time to time. DESCRIPTION Work…
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Amanda F.
The Brighton family is looking for a fun and loving nanny
Both parents are present with one child and a dog. We love spending time outdoors as a family when we are not working. The child enjoys being outdoors (cycling, walking, etc.) and reading. Baby sleeps once a day around 2pm…
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Michigan family looking for live-in nanny
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Edinson D.
American Family is looking for a reliable au pair
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Azbuka Semyi, ChP | Kyiv, UA
in Detroit 58 km, full time
Nanny needed for a Russian speaking family living in the USA.
The child is 4 years old.
Working conditions: family composition 3 people 5-day working week food and accommodation, flight at the expense of the employer salary from $ 1800 per month (depends on experience and …
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January 31, 2019
Your Nanny FLP | Kyiv, UA
in Michigan City 268 km, full time
VACANCY: Nanny – Educator in the USA, Michigan
Schedule 5 days a week, 2 days off
Very wealthy family
Living with an employer
The family provides food
Family travel
Salary: $3500 per…
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4 days ago
Your Nanny, FLP | Kyiv, UA
in Chicago 324 km, full time
VACANCY: Nanny in the USA, Chicago
Work for half a year
Schedule 5 days a week, 2 days off
Very wealthy family
Living with an employer
The family provides food
Family travel
Salary: $3500 per. ..
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August 11, 2022
Your Nanny, FLP | Kyiv, UA
in Chicago 324 km, part time
VACANCY: Nanny in USA
Schedule 2/2 with a second nanny
Place of work: USA
Homestay work
The family provides food
Family travel
Salary: from 1800 dollars per month
Responsibilities:
– Caring for a 1 year old
-Organization…
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August 5, 2022
Your Nanny FLP | Kyiv, UA
in Chicago 324 km, full time
VACANCY: Housekeeper-assistant in the USA with knowledge of English
Working hours 5 days a week, 2 days off
Ukrainian family
Place of work: USA
Homestay work
The family provides food
Family travel
Salary…
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July 5, 2022
Zolotova Lika, FLP | Zaporozhye, UA
in California, full time
Two children: 3 and 5 years old.
Shift work: 3/3 months.
Working hours: 6/1.
It is important that the nanny is experienced and knows how to handle two young children. How to overcome conflicts between children. I understood…
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20 days ago
Yatskovskaya MK, FLP | Melitopol, UA
in California, full time
We are applying for a job up to a Nanny. California, USA. RFP: 3000 dollars. Witrati on the road sіm’ya pay. Two children: 3 and 5 years. Rotational work method: 3/3 months; 6/1. Gromadyanstvo EU + visa. It’s important that the nanny was with good knowledge and knew that …
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30 days ago
Your Nanny, FLP | Kyiv, UA
in Atlanta, full time
VACANCY: Nanny in Atlanta, USA
Schedule 5 days a week, 2 days off
Living with an employer
The family provides food
Family travel
Salary: $3500 per month
Responsibilities:
– Caring for a 2 year old child,
-Organization…
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July 29, 2022
Family Service Agency, ChP | Kyiv, UA
in Washington, full time, work experience from 5 years and above, vocational secondary
Obov’yazkova nayavnist vіzi in the United States, auto rights. Obov’yazki: Take two children at the cages 1.6 years and 5 years. Drive by car to the nursery until the 8th wound. The prolongation of the day – often cleaning up the house, …
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July 9, 2022
Your Nanny, FLP | Kyiv, UA
in California City, full time
VACANCY: Nanny in the USA
Work for half a year
Schedule 5 days a week, 2 days off
Very wealthy family
Living with an employer
The family provides food
Family travel
Place of work: USA
Salary: $3000 per…
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July 5, 2022
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Mira, Corporation | Kyiv, UA
in San Diego, full time, work experience from 1 year and above
A Russian-speaking family needs a nanny and a housekeeper all rolled into one. Three children 5 and 6 years old boys and a girl 2 years old. Main responsibilities: cleaning a 2-storey house, cooking, collecting children for school and garden. Requirements for a woman: age…
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July 1, 2022
Home Staff, s.r.o. | Prague, CZ
in California City, full time, work experience from 1 year and above
Urgent! We invite you to work in the family NANNY.
California, USA
RFP: $3,000. The family pays for the travel expenses.
Two children: 3 and 5 years old.
Rotational method of work 3/3 months; 6/1.
EU citizenship + visa (we help).
It is important that the nanny be experienced and…
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June 29, 2022
World Corporation | Kyiv, UA
in Houston, full time, work experience from 1 year and above, vocational secondary
Need a nanny and housekeeper for a family with one child, girl 4 years old. The child is the priority! The girl needs to be collected in the morning for school, the parents themselves take and bring. She is at school until 15:00/15:30. Cooking for the girl, cleaning the nursery…
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July 1, 2022
Family Service Agency, ChP | Kyiv, UA
in New York, full time, work experience from 1 year and above, vocational secondary
Need a nanny with a US visa or green card, US residence permit. A 7-month-old baby needs professional round-the-clock care. Parents’ requirements – spoken Ukrainian and English.
Responsibilities: cooking and feeding,…
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May 26, 20220458 | Kyiv, UA
in Washington, full time, work experience from 1 year and above
Nanny required with an open US visa for a child of 1 year 4 months. Experience working with families preferred.
Responsibilities: caring for a 1.4-year-old child – hygiene, cooking for two children, feeding, walking, development. Help with an older child aged 8…
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May 26, 2022
Marushchak S.M., FLP | Mykolaiv, UA
in Florida City, full time
Accommodation: Free
Need a nanny for a 1.4 year old girl. The family is Russian-speaking. Place of work – USA, Florida. Responsibilities – full care, development, organization of leisure, walks and everything related to the child. There is a housekeeper and a cook. Schedule – 5/2,…
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February 24, 2022
Simakova G. E., FLP | Kyiv, UA
in New York, full time, work experience from 2 years and above
Since mid-March.*The family lives in a house of 450 sq. m. 40 minutes from Manhattan (New York). 4 people (2 adults and two children) Children girls 3 years and a boy 2 months. The eldest goes to kindergarten, and the youngest is with a nanny all day. In the morning you need to raise …
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February 23, 2022
Home Staff, s.r.o. | Prague, CZ
in New York, full time, work experience from 1 year and above
With open visas to the USA.
RFP: from 3000 USD
Homestay work. Living and working conditions are good.
Detailed information on each specific vacancy can be…
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February 17, 2022
Aelita home staff agency… | Kyiv, UA
in Virginia Beach, full time, work experience from 1 year and above
Nanny needed to work with a child 2 years old
Working conditions: USA, 6/1, single room, payment for the flight by the family
Responsibilities: age development of the child
Requirements: US visa, experience with a similar age
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January 26, 2022
Aelita home staff agency. .. | Kyiv, UA
in New York, full time, work experience from 1 year and above
Nanny needed in USA
Conditions : 5/2, separate accommodation, flight payment
Requirements: US visa, experience with similar duties
Responsibilities: helping with the housework, getting the child to school (1 child), helping with cooking (mother cooks),…
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Features of the forensic psychiatric assessment of the mental state of women who have committed the murders of their children (part 1)
JUDICIAL PSYCHIATRY
For correspondence
Kachaeva Margarita Aleksandrovna – Doctor of Medical Sciences, Professor, Chief Researcher of the Federal State Institution “State Scientific Center for Social and Forensic Psychiatry. V.P. Serbian
Address: 119992, Moscow, Kropotkinsky lane, 23 Telephone (495) 637-48-75 E-mail: mkachaeva@mail. ru
М.А. Kachaeva, V.V. Rusina, L.S. Satyanova
Features of the forensic psychiatric assessment of the mental state of women who have committed the murders of their children (part 1)
State Scientific Center for Social and Forensic Psychiatry. V.P. Serbsky, Moscow
Voronezh Regional Clinical Psychoneurological Dispensary The Serbsky National Research Center for Social and Forensic Psychiatry, Moscow
Voronezh Regional Clinical Psychoneurotic Dispensary
Specifics of forensic-psychiatric appraisal of the mental health status of women who committed filicide (part 1)
M.A. Kachaeva, V.V. Rusina, L.S. Satyanova
The paper examines the clinical and social risk factors for criminal or aggressive acts by women directed at their children. The authors acknowledge the criminogenic importance of the high level of psychotic disturbances in women who commit socially dangerous acts triggered by psychopathological mechanisms. Factors of social ill-being, intrafamily conflicts and antisocial microenvronment can serve as a breeding ground for acts of violence.
Key words: woman, filicide, infanticide, psychotic state, altruistic motivation for murder, social ill-being, isolation, psychotraumatic situation, adverse emotional childhood experiences of women aimed at their children. The criminogenic significance of a high level of psychotic disorders in women, when socially dangerous acts are committed by psychopathological mechanisms, is shown. The implementation of aggressive actions is facilitated by the factors of social disadvantage for women, conflicts in the family and antisocial microenvironment.
Keywords: woman, murder of a child, infanticide,
psychotic state, “altruistic” motivation for murder, social disadvantage, isolation, traumatic situation, negative emotional experience of women’s childhood
the world. Not only lawyers and doctors call for attention, but also public figures, the media, who report with alarm that more and more children are dying from violence.
Let’s start with definitions, because when qualifying this type of aggressive action, the clarity of terms is important.
Filicide is the killing by a mother of her child over one year old. It differs from infanticide (infanticide), in which the mother commits the murder of her child under the age of 12 months. Neonaticide is the killing by the mother of a child during and within 24 hours of childbirth.
Russian Psychiatric Journal No. 6, 2009
19
FORENSIC PSYCHIATRY
#
In part 1 of this publication we will consider the murder of a child and infanticide, part 2 of the article will be devoted to the murder of a newborn child.
According to the US Department of Justice, for the last quarter of the XX century. of the killed children under 5 years old, 61% died at the hands of their own parents: 31% were killed by their fathers, 30% by their mothers. There has also been an increase in the number of children under the age of 1 killed by parents (US Department of Justice, 2001). Compared to other developed countries, the United States has the highest prevalence of child homicide: 8/100,000 children under one year old, 2. 5/100,000 preschool children (1-4 years old), and 1.5/100,000 children aged 5-4 years old. 14 years.
In Canada, the rate of parents committing murders of children under one year old is 2.9/100,000 children [6].
A study of cases of child murders over the period from 1981 to 1997, conducted in Slovakia by P. Sykora [15], revealed that children under the age of 2 years accounted for 20%, children 3-4 years old – 6%, other age groups were 3-4%.
C.L. Meyer, M. Oberman [10] in a study devoted to the problem of child murder described five types of it, based on social, cultural and economic factors. They attributed the murder of a newborn by the mother in the first 24 hours of his life (neonaticide) to the first type. The second type was made up of mothers who kill their children together with an abusive, usually substance-abusing (substance-abusing) marital partner. The third type of murder includes the deaths of children who die as a result of a lack of attention and care from their mothers. The fourth type is represented by mothers whose child-rearing methods involve physical punishment leading to death. The fifth type is represented by the murder of children, committed as a result of mental disorders of women (schizophrenia [16], postpartum depression or other psychoses).
Many researchers noted that women who killed children older than one day of life, compared with mothers who killed newborns, were more likely to have psychotic disorders, suicide attempts [3, 5, 7, 11, 13], as well as previous hospitalizations in psychiatric hospitals [12]. Finnish researchers J. Haapasalo, S. Petaya [7] reported that in 85% of cases such women experienced serious psychological problems.
In her work, M. Smithey [14] noted past sexual or physical violence, low social support and substance abuse, common among mothers who killed their children under 3 years of age. J.D. Marleau et al. [9], who examined women who were in a psychiatric hospital in connection with the murder of their children, revealed the same social factors.
Ann Arbor, Michigan (USA) Forensic Psychiatry Center C.F. Lewis et al. [8] (2003) conducted a retrospective study of 55 cases of mothers killing their children in 1974-1996. The age of women ranged from 17 to 47 years. In 52.7% of the surveyed, psychotic disorders were detected during the period of the murder, while it is characteristic that they belonged to the older age group. 3/4 of the women were single, but in the group suffering from psychosis, women were significantly more likely to be married, divorced or living separately from their husbands, while having several desired children. Women without psychotic disorders were more likely to be single and have one child. More than half of the study participants graduated from high school, but mentally ill women had a higher education compared to a group of healthy women, but despite this, they were more often unemployed. More than half of the surveyed were brought up by one parent, suffered sexual abuse. The most commonly diagnosed women with psychiatric disorders were schizophrenia, major depressive episode with psychotic inclusions, and personality disorder. In the group of women suffering from psychoses, in 9In 0% of cases, auditory hallucinations were noted (62% of which were imperative), in 79% delusional disorders were identified, the content of which reflected the fear of threats to children from outside, including due to their poor performance of maternal duties. 52% of women considered their children “dangerous”, claiming that they were “monsters” or had such properties. 37.5% of all surveyed used PAS, every fourth at the time of the murder was in a state of alcoholic or drug intoxication. However, mentally ill women compared to mentally healthy women used psychoactive substances with a higher frequency. It was also noted that they had previously received psychiatric care. Women with psychotic disorders were more likely to kill multiple children using weapons. They (1/3 of the group) were less likely than mentally healthy women to have contacts with the Society for the Protection of Children. At the same time, children were more often taken away from them by the guardianship authorities due to the lack of proper care, rather than due to ill-treatment. Women who do not suffer from mental disorders most often beat their children to death (87.5% of all deaths from beatings). All child deaths associated with the lack of proper care (death from starvation, drowning, failure to provide medical care) were also noted in the group of mentally healthy women.
In a study of women who committed the murder of their children followed by a suicide attempt, M.A.
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M.A. Kachaeva, V.V. Rusina, L.S. Satyanova
constellation of various psychogenic factors that are of particular importance for a woman. These are the husband’s cruelty, the child’s illness, out-of-wedlock births, official troubles, which had a “key character” in accordance with the structure of the woman’s personality and her system of values and contributed to the formation of neurotic depression with ideas of little value. The addition of somatogenic factors (pregnancy, childbirth) contributed to a steady increase in depressive affect, which quickly reached a vital level, accompanied by a sense of hopelessness, anxiety, fear, despair, thoughts of imminent death. At the same time, the pathological altruistic motivation of aggressive criminal actions was clearly revealed, when the murder was committed out of a sense of “compassion”. Women, as a rule, were distinguished by asthenic and psychasthenic premorbid personality structure.
The purpose of the study is to determine the clinical and social factors that contribute to the commission of aggressive criminal acts by women against their young children.
Material and methods
We examined 10 women who had committed the murder of their children and who had undergone a comprehensive forensic psychological and psychiatric examination. The following methods were used: clinical-psychopathological, clinical-social, statistical.
Results and discussion
A study of the clinical and socio-demographic characteristics of the examined women revealed the following. The average age of women at the time of the crime was 29.6 years and ranged from 19 to 50 years. Schizophrenia was detected in 40% of the examined patients, 30% had a depressive episode of severe or moderate severity, 20% had organic mental disorders, and 10% had signs of stage 2 alcohol dependence syndrome.
In the studied group, heredity in 60% of cases was aggravated by alcoholism of parents, in 10% – by schizophrenia.
Most of the surveyed women (70%) were brought up in two-parent families, but 50% of women suffered abuse from their parents in childhood. 40% of women had a cold relationship with their mother, they considered themselves unloved daughters, they were jealous of their parents for brothers and sisters.
The educational level in this group was quite high: 60% of women received secondary specialized education, 10% of women had higher and 10% incomplete higher education, 10% received secondary education, 10% graduated from auxiliary school.
The marital status of women in this group was as follows: 50% were married, of which 30% had relationships. However, relations with marriage partners were uneven, conflicting, unhappy. 30% of women had two children, the rest had only one child. In 70% of cases, women did not provide proper care for children, did not take care of them, were burdened by them, treated them cruelly, left in the care of acquaintances and unfamiliar people, relatives. At the same time, in 50% of cases, children were unwanted for women, in 20% – children were brought up in an atmosphere of hyper-custody, as a rule, as a result of crazy ideas of influence and persecution noted in women, which included their children.
By the time the offense was committed, the majority of women in this group (80%) were not working, 40% of them had children under one year old. 20% of women performed low-skilled jobs. In 60% of cases, the financial situation of women was poor, social support in 50% of cases was insufficient.
50% of women were registered in the neuropsychiatric dispensary for mental disorders (30% of them had previously received treatment in a psychiatric hospital due to diagnosed schizophrenia), 10% for postpartum psychosis. 10% – due to mental retardation established in childhood. In 10% of cases, in the period preceding infanticide, women had contact with general practitioners due to the presence of many different somatic complaints. In 10% of cases, pediatricians noted a delay in the mental or physical development of children, traces of abuse. 30% of women have previously committed suicide attempts.
In 90% of cases, one child was killed by women; if there were several children, the youngest suffered. Of the total number of those killed, 30% were children under the age of one year, 60% – children of preschool age (2-6 years), and 10% – of primary school age.
Children died in 40% of cases as a result of strangulation, in 20% as a result of drowning, in 10% as a result of beating, in 10% from hypothermia. In 20% of cases, mothers used a weapon (knife, ax) to kill children, inflicting piercing and cutting wounds on them.
30% of women have committed or attempted suicide after killing children.
FORENSIC PSYCHIATRY
In 30% of cases, the OOD was motivated by delusional ideas of guilt, the low value of women as mothers, their poor performance of maternal duties, the murder was committed for “altruistic” motives – so that the child “does not suffer.” 10% of women revealed crazy ideas of influence, causing physical harm to the child, as a result of which mothers also sought to save children from “torment”. In 30% of cases, children died as a result of the delusional belief of mothers that they are “possessed”, that they are “changing”. Often, women experienced growing disunity with children as a result of this “change”, experienced a sense of influence from children. 30% of the dead suffered as a result of uselessness to mothers who did not cope with their duties, were burdened by them, and experienced irritation towards children.
In the course of a forensic psychiatric assessment of the mental state of women who killed children, it was found that in 80% of cases they could not understand the actual nature and social danger of their actions and manage them. This decision was due to schizophrenia diagnosed in 40% of cases, severe depressive episode with psychotic disorders in 20%, psychogenic depression (moderate depressive episode) in 10%, and organic delusional (schizophrenia-like) disorder in 10%. In 10% of cases, it was found that during the period of the offense, mental disorders and individual psychological characteristics that were present in connection with an organic personality disorder had a significant impact on behavior and limited the ability to fully realize the actual nature and social danger of their actions and manage them in conditions traumatic situation, which led to the application of Art. 22 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation. In 10%, alcohol dependence syndrome of the 2nd stage was detected, which is
did not interfere with the ability to understand the actual nature and social danger of their actions and manage them during the commission of the crime.
The conducted research allows us to conclude that women who have committed murders of children have a high level of psychopathologically aggravated heredity with a predominance of alcoholism and, as a result, negative emotional experience of childhood as a result of an unfavorable psychological situation in parental families with the assimilation of appropriate forms of response.
Characteristically, during the period of the murder of children, most of the women experienced significant material difficulties and were in social isolation. For the most part, they did not take care of the children, shifted their maternal responsibilities to those in their immediate environment, often refused to care for children or, on the contrary, took care of them excessively and absurdly, which often attracted the attention of others.
A high level of psychotic disorders in women, a significant frequency of providing them with psychiatric care in the period of time preceding the delict, their previous suicide attempts or strange behaviors that attracted attention were revealed.
Thus, in the commission of murder by women of their children older than one day of life, the influence of psychopathological mechanisms is clearly revealed. An extremely important role in these cases is played by such social factors as low material level, lack of social support for women raising young children, conflict family relationships, which are the trigger for the development of a psychogenic traumatic situation, in which decompensation develops, as a rule, of previously existing mental disorders. leading to the killing of children.
Information about the authors
Kachaeva Margarita Aleksandrovna – Doctor of Medical Sciences, Professor, Chief Researcher, State Research Center for Social and Forensic Psychiatry. V.P. Serbsky E-mail: [email protected]
Rusina Viktoriya Viktorovna – doctor, forensic psychiatric expert of the Voronezh Regional Clinical Psychoneurological Dispensary, applicant for the degree of Candidate of Medical Sciences at the Dissertation Council of the State Scientific Center for Social and Forensic Psychiatry. V.P. Serbian E-mail: [email protected]
Lyudmila Stepanovna Satyanova – 3rd year full-time postgraduate student of the Federal State Institution “State Scientific Center for Social and Forensic Psychiatry named after I.I. V.P. Serbsky E-mail: [email protected]
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Literature
M.A. Kachaeva, V.V. Rusina, L.S. Satyanova
1. Kachaeva M.A. Mental disorders in women who have committed aggressive acts against a person (clinical and forensic psychiatric aspects): Dis. … Dr. med. Sciences. – M., 1999. – 389 p.
2. American Psychiatric Association Statement on the Insanity Defense and Mental Illness. Release No 02-08. – Washington: APA, March 2002.
3. Bourget D, Labelle A. Homicide, infanticide, and filicide // Psychiatr. Clin. North Am. – 1992. – Vol. 15. – P. 661-673.
4. Brockington I. Pregnancy and mental health // Motherhood and Mental Health. – Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1996. -P. 61-134.
5. Cheung P.T.K. Maternal filicide in Hong Kong // Med. sci. law. -1986.-Vol. 26.-P.185-192.
6. Finkelhor D. The homicides of children and youth: a developmental perspective // Out of the Darkness: Contemporary Perspectives on Family Violence / Ed. G.K. Kantor, J.L. Jasinski. -Thousand Oaks: Sage Publications, 1997. – P. 17-34.
7. Haapasalo J., Petaya S. Mothers who killed or attempted to kill their child: Life circumstances, child abuse, and types of killing // Violence Vict. – 1999. – Vol. 14, N 3.-P. 219-239.
8. Lewis C.F., Bunce S.C. Filicidal Mothers and the Impact of Psychosis on Maternal Filicide // J. Am. Acad. of Psychiatry Law. – 2003. – Vol. 31.-P. 459-470.
9. Marleau J.D., Roy R, Laporte L. et al. Homicide D’Enfant Commis par la Mere // Can. J. Psychiatry. – 1995. – Vol. 40, No. 3. – P. 142-149.
10. Meyer C.L., Oberman M, White K. et al. Mothers Who Kill Their Children: Understanding the Acts of Moms from Susan Smith to “Prom Mom”. – N.Y.: New York University Press, 2001.
11. D’Orban P.T. Women who kill their children // Br. J. Psychiatry. -1979. – Vol. 134. – P. 560-571.
12. Pitt S.E., Bale E.M. Neonaticide, infanticide, and filicide: a review of the literature // Bull. Am. Acad. Psychiatry Law. -1995. – Vol. 3. – P. 375-386.
13. Resnick P.J. Murder of the newborn: A psychiatric review of neonaticide // Am. J. Psychiatry. – 1970. – Vol. 126, No. 10.-P. 1414-1420.
14. Smithey M. Infant Homicide at the Hands of Mothers: Towards a Sociological Perspective // Deviant. behavior. – 1997. – Vol. 18.-p. 255-272.
15. Sykora P. Gender-biased infanticide in contemporary Slovakia: The Ionian Conference. – Corfu, Greece, 2000.
16. Tekell J. Management of pregnancy in schizophrenic women // Management of Psychiatric Disorders in Pregnancy / Ed. K. Yonkers, B. Little. – London: Arnold, 2001. – P. 189-212.
17. US Department of Justice: Homicide Trends in the United States: Infanticide.\\http://www.ojp.usdoj.gov/bjs/homicide/children.htm [updated 2001]
Mark Ioffe: Chair in Ann
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In a kind of cocoon of the university and the department, you are cut off from the outside world, and the people with whom you closely converge during your graduate years become a very important support, a necessary condition for survival. We all understood this, and it united us. Alone it was very difficult .
chapter 18
After the departure from our department of my two closest friends – Joe Krafchik and Yura Ilyushchenko – about whom I wrote earlier, circumstances developed in such a way that my closest friends in the future were students from other faculties, with none of our I didn’t really get close to the graduate students.
Mark Trotter was probably the exception. Mark came to our department probably a year or two before me, and therefore, in the year of my arrival in Ann Arbor, he was on a postgraduate internship to study the language in Moscow.
The graduate students with whom Sonya and I were close in the first year, the already mentioned Yvonne, Joy and Anita, who began their studies with Mark, spoke very flatteringly about him and obviously missed him.
“Here comes Mark, he is so wonderful! When Mark arrives, it will be fun! Mark is so great!”
It so happened that in the absence of Mark, the toughest guy in our village was me. But I was married, and that in itself seemed to narrow down the plan of my applicability in everyday life. Mark was single and, judging by the stories, very cool.
Did it annoy me? I don’t know, I’m not sure. But I was interested, of course, to see with my own eyes what kind of fruit this is, this vaunted Mark Trotter.
And in September, at the beginning of my second studies, my potential rival in male popularity at the department returned from Moscow. Actually, no one introduced us to each other, I just noticed that in mid-September 1984, someone moved into the neighboring office … someone very handsome and imposing.
Seeing Mark even from afar was enough to understand how he took all our girls. There was nothing for me to compete with. Mark Trotter was the physical embodiment of the handsome intellectual you would expect to find in a chair at a prestigious American university: he was masculinely built with broad shoulders and narrow hips, tall, muscular as an athlete, with an iconic oblong face adorned with dark, velvety eyes that squinted charmingly. in a restrained Anglo-Saxon half smile. His face of a character from a painting by Rubens or Caravaggio was also framed by a large, bushy beard and long, wavy jet hair over a high, straight forehead. He was very upright and walked in tight jeans with the gait of a young Clint Eastwood from the pasta westerns, that gait when Eastwood walks straight into danger, his chest squared and his right shoulder slightly forward to make it easier to shoot with his right hand. Mark dressed deliberately like a forester or a farmer: jeans, heavy humped boots and a dark plaid flannel shirt. All this sat very well on him, with a sense of business, and was extremely in harmony with his general image – either a farmer, or a cowboy, or a bohemian intellectual.
As I gradually got to know Mark and started talking to him, I noticed that he didn’t actually have to do or say anything special. His very appearance made him so noticeable and spectacular that he did not have to strain himself, uttering something thoughtful, as I did, for example. In any company, Mark could be put in a far corner, and after a while he was already surrounded by interlocutors, or rather, interlocutors. For Mark was very attracted to charming ladies, he knew this quality of his and skillfully used it, like a real playboy. And how could such an imposing man not use his God-given data? I would also use…
With all this, Mark was modest in the Anglo-Saxon way, thoughtful, not verbose. He was the son of a cultured Philadelphia family. His father was a famous and popular school teacher in Philadelphia. As the son of the intelligentsia, Mark professed extreme left political views. By age, he happened to catch the last couple of years of military recruitment during the Vietnam War, and in order to avoid it, he acted like a real left-wing radical of that time – he left for Canada, where he entered the famous Montreal McGill University to study. There he contacted the followers of the Yippie movement, created by the radical left guru Jerry Rubin. Apparently, Mark owed one of his non-American traits to this movement: unlike most Americans, Mark had a highly developed sense of irony and the ability to utter ironic statements, which, even in their reticence, “made” people in such a way that it would not seem small …
Mark had another extremely rare quality for an American, where he got it from, Sonya and I had no idea, although we noted it and even tried to analyze its roots. The point was that, unlike ALL of our American colleagues — boys and girls, graduate students and professors too — Mark was generous with money. That is, not that he threw them, but, unlike other colleagues, he was never seen in stinginess. It’s just like it was: we go, let’s say, as a company to a bar, and after drinking, a long and tedious payback begins, in which the most boring participants meticulously find out how many glasses of beer they exactly drank there, so that God forbid not to overpay, and if possible and if you’re lucky , so still would not pay. Mark did not participate in these showdowns, but always threw $20 more than he was supposed to on the table, if he did not try to pay for everyone at all. Or, say, we go to someone’s apartment for a drink, and we have to go to the store for booze, so while others there are counting pennies and buying beer “Kurs”, “Schlitz”, “Old Milwaukee” or similar cheap muck, Mark is just bought a bottle of Stolichnaya or his favorite Canadian rye whiskey, Crown Royale, which was a lot for a graduate student’s budget. Well, how could his colleagues not like him?
Mark, by training, was more of a linguist than a literary scholar, although he never formally chose his academic orientation. Arriving from Moscow, he insisted on speaking Russian. And he spoke very well and gradually only improved, although to this day he has some, if not English, then perhaps some kind of Baltic accent, or pronunciation. Sonya and I, obviously, were interesting to him and impressed, probably as Russian-speaking emigrants. Our somewhat right-wing and extremely anti-Soviet views did not annoy him, or if they did, he never showed it. However, most likely, he, a Montreal yippie radical, returned from the Soviet Union having realized a lot about this country and having lost those illusions that he may have had before the trip.
He also reached out to us for another reason – he obviously, and he almost did not hide it, was very fond of my beautiful Sonya. In addition, she was cheerful and a drunkard, and Mark himself, unlike the rest of our classmates, loved and knew how to drink and drank a lot and seriously. At that time, I was a wild bore and, as I already reported, did not drink at all. From which, it must be said, he suffered without ceasing. So, at our threesomes that Mark and Sonya and I had, they drank vodka or something, and I tried to enjoy marijuana, which didn’t work out very well for me – euphoria never set in, and I always envied Mark and Sonya, famously pawning glass after glass of the coveted potion behind the collar.
At one point, Mark decided to find out how things were going with Sonya and me, apparently, this question haunted him, and he asked directly, like: “In Moscow, I noticed among married couples that their marriages, well, how shall I put it… not very stable. I noticed that Soviet marriages are a kind of fiction, in which both parties to the marriage live a free life, as if in an open marriage. What about you?”
Sonya and I talked animatedly about this topic, because we knew very well what Mark was talking about and what he had in mind, and we assured him that our marriage was the most American, closed and available only to us. Mark understood and behaved accordingly.
Then he went to Poland, where, apparently, he learned the Polish language quite well, he is generally very capable of languages, which was proved by his subsequent adventure – somewhere in the late 80s or early 90s, I don’t remember, he moved to a permanent place of residence in Hungary and learned the most difficult Hungarian language well enough to teach at one of the major Hungarian universities. This story, of course, did not do without the participation of a certain Hungarian lady, to whom he was married for some time, but this did not last long.
Thus, after Mark left for Hungary, our contact with him was interrupted for many years. Sonya and I moved to Washington, pushed around, divorced, life went on as usual, I began to forget about my kind Michigan classmate Mark Trotter, when suddenly in the summer of 2003 I received an e-mail note that Mark was in the suburbs of Washington , in Virginia, at his sister’s. A meeting was instantly arranged at the house of his sister Julia, the same as Mark, a leftist liberal, a lawyer who at that time worked for the benefit of American veterans of the Vietnam War, a tribe offended and offended, misunderstood and cruelly slandered by the progressive American public. You won’t find a nobler job for an American lawyer.
I visited Mark and Julia with my then girlfriend, poet and performance artist Andrea Collins, with whom we subsequently created our book on rock music and nationalism. We found the same handsome Mark in the yard of the dearest Julia, but not alone, but with his bride, a former Leningrader, at that time a graduate student at the Hungarian University, where she was writing a dissertation on Hungarian linguistics. Veronika turned out to be charming, intelligent and distinguished by the character of unusual friendliness, especially unusual in a former Soviet person.
Mark and Veronica were passing through the Washington area, on their way to Indiana University on the wonderful campus of Bloomington, where they were to teach at a foreign language summer school.
When we met at Julia’s, it was as if we never parted, the conversation flowed easily and naturally, while we shared stories about the events of past years with each other. The wine also flowed like in the old days, only with the difference that for the first time in my life I was drinking with Mark, for over the years I began to drink, as I have already informed dear readers. And, of course, we all laughed that evening, read, to the squeal of a pig. Julia kindly offered Andrey and I to stay overnight with them, which I should have done, but I proudly and stupidly decided to go home, and how we got home that night, only God knows, because I didn’t even knit a bast and I forgot completely as we arrived. And before leaving, Mark asked me if I would like to come to Bloomington to read a series of 2-3 lectures on Soviet rock and Slavic folklore. My research into rock, Slavic mythology, and vampire folklore, Mark found very interesting.
Of course, I gladly agreed, the offer was tempting, but I immediately forgot about it – you never know who offers something drunk. And I was incredibly surprised when, a couple of days later, Mark himself reminded me of our conversation and asked me to send him my summary and a brief description of the proposed lectures, which he promised to transfer to the authorities, on which the invitation depended.
And again, I forgot about the conversation that happened immediately after sending him my materials. Who knows when and where they asked me to send my data, and I never heard about the promised event again.
A few weeks passed, and from Bloomington came an invitation letter from the director of the famous summer language school of Indiana University, the legendary Jerzy Kolodziej, a Polish philosopher, hippie and romantic, with whom we later warmly became friends.
And so, with Mark’s generous and unexpected suggestion, I taught at this summer school for 7 years until the brilliant Jerzy retired, after which the new authorities stopped inviting me, and Mark himself somewhat retired from the affairs of the summer school, becoming an assistant to the director of the Institute for the Study Russia and Eastern Europe.
But the seven years that I went to them were extremely interesting for me, enriching, both financially and intellectually, and evenings in the cozy circle of Mark’s growing family brought me special pleasure – he and Veronica had two wonderful girls, – and also wonderful were our all-night drunken vigils with the philosopher Jerzy, where we talked a lot and interestingly about the secrets of life and death, about mysticism, about superstition, and especially about the secrets of femininity and women. Those were still unforgettable moments to which I am attached by my memory.
Then, when Mark left Ann Arbor, I became close with students from other departments, and they became our main friends in those student years before we all went to different parts of America.
Since the year, probably, 86-87, our closest friend has been a graduate student, a music historian who studied the history of the Soviet musical avant-garde of the 1920s, David Haas.
David appeared in our lives not by chance. In 1984-86, my father, Elchonon Ioffe, worked on his famous book Tchaikovsky in America. He put it together from letters, diaries of Pyotr Ilyich and from newspaper materials that accompanied the composer’s visit to America, to New York, to celebrate the opening of Carnegie Hall in 1893 at the invitation of the creator of this famous concert hall, industrialist Andrew Carnegie. The Pope supplied the collected materials with his comments and explanations, uniting them into a single whole narrative. I wrote the preface to this book, and my mother, Lydia Ioffe, translated the entire text, including the one written by Pyotr Ilyich himself, into English. Mom’s English, like dad’s and me, was newly acquired, we owned it (to one degree or another) only a few years from our arrival in America at 1978 year. So, on my mother’s part, undertaking such a translation was both heroism and even arrogance somewhere, but my mother is a highly educated philologist, a thorough connoisseur of how languages work, and although she was frightened by such a project, she was very inspired at the same time. . She really wanted to try her hand at literary translation. And, as critics later wrote, the translation was brilliant. But when mom finished translating, we, of course, decided to find a real American editor to run the text through his knowledge of the language. One of the teachers of the Russian language, whom I have already mentioned, Natalya Chalis, a woman of culture and a great admirer of Tchaikovsky’s music, who knew many students and professors from the music school of our university, recommended David Haas, a graduate student, as a similar editor.
David was very tall, thin, handsome in his own way in the lean, wiry, somewhat angular beauty of a Dutchman, as if descended from Rembrandt’s paintings. David knew Russian, but very passively, he spoke Russian extremely poorly, but he read quite fluently. Once he spent a semester in Leningrad studying the language.
Parents hired David to complete my father’s work, which became our kind of family project, and he brought the translation of the book to such a condition that after, it seems, 17 unsuccessful submissions of this manuscript to various publishing houses in America, it was finally accepted for publication by the publishing house Oxford University, its New York branch. Greater recognition and success of this kind of work could not be expected.
To celebrate this happy occasion, the parents invited David to a restaurant with us.
From there, our very mutually important friendship began to spin, which, in a strange way, ended after David left Ann Arbor for a professorship in the city of Athens, Georgia, at their state university.
David was gentle, witty, perfectly understood our psychology of foreigners, including humor, was extremely tolerant of us and indulgent towards mistakes in relation to the cultural code of America, which we, of course, endlessly made. David, of course, was politically leftist. But close contact with the Soviet Union robbed him of his usual leftist idealization of the “Soviet experiment.”
Over time, David seemed to have joined Sonya and my family, and life without his almost daily presence at our house became, as it were, almost impossible. We shared with him thoughts and analyzes of our student life, and the culture and rituals of our university, and helped him find the next girlfriends, whom he lost as easily as he gained. We discussed the Soviet Union, Soviet power and the attitude of American liberals towards them especially a lot. Under our anti-Soviet propaganda, David was noticeably right, although, of course, he never turned into a complete Republican, such as Sonya and I and my parents were in those years, before the fall of the Soviet Union.
Later in 1988, I even know for sure that it was in December 1988, we had more friends, musicians from the music school of our university – John and Satik Kennedy.
Why do I remember exactly the month when I became friends with John and Satik? The fact was that in December 1988, the famous catastrophic earthquake occurred in Armenia near the city of Gyumri, as a result of which this small, poor republic was practically in ruins, with thousands of homeless people huddling on the streets on cold December days, and with thousands of victims, buried under the ruins.
John was an Irish American, a talented, but, as David said, “too experimental” composer, completing a doctorate in composition at our university. Satik was an Iranian Armenian from California. She was born in Iran and spoke with a little cute accent. John was stout, imposing – the spoiled son of a very wealthy Cleveland family of hereditary industrialists. Satik, also a musician who studied classical guitar, was, as befits a representative of her tribe, temperamental, ambitious, distinguished by extremely intolerant opinions about everything and everything, and was very pretty in the swarthy black-haired appearance of an Iranian-Armenian.
We hooked up with the “satiks,” as Sonya and I called the Kennedys, about a fundraiser for the victims of the Armenian earthquake, which we held among students on campus and on the married campus, where we and they lived next door in the same town -houses of the university.
Strangely, for the most part, these friendships made during graduate studies have not stood the test of time and have not survived. Except for Mark Trotter and Yura Ilyushchenko, perhaps everyone has fallen away. And the Armenian Armen, a brilliant linguist and polyglot, with a very obstinate French wife, the godparents of the “satiks” children. And my wife Sonya’s employee at the University of Michigan library named Eric, whom we dubbed “Erichka”, an overgrown dunce, a glutton, a bohemian and a drug addict, the son of a three-star general, whom Sonya and I convinced to go to study at a library school and thereby helped him get “special” for life. In general, many graduate students worked with Sonya in the Slavic department of the university library – historians, political scientists who spoke Slavic languages to one degree or another – and they, over time, became closer to us and became close friends. But only for the duration of Ann Arbor, as I said.
As for professors, I wouldn’t call friendship with them. Still, the social, age, prestige difference was too big between us – students and professors.
With Titunik we could be intellectual partners, we could drink vodka together, but he, like Vitaly Viktorovich Shevoroshkin, remained my mentor and not a friend at all.
There was, however, one exception, where my relationship with the professor for a time became like a real friendship. But then this relationship dissipated completely, so I kind of don’t know what it really was. I am talking here about my professor, an Englishman from Oxford, an expert on Tsvetaeva and Klyuev, Michael Makin, and I will give a slightly more detailed account of him later.
In a kind of cocoon of the university and the department, you are cut off from the outside world, and the people with whom you closely converge during the years of graduate school become a very important support, a necessary condition for survival. We all understood this, and it united us. Alone it was very difficult. I was the lucky one of my kind—I had a loving wife, a few close friends, and parents an hour away, living in the so-called “White Capital of Michigan,” a suburb of Detroit with the beautiful name of Birmingham.
All these connections were a powerful support, because in our graduate student life something was happening all the time and not always something pleasant.
The intellectually saturated learning process itself could be called pleasant, except for exams, of course, and apart from the endless struggle for money for study.
Regular surprises of this type happened: that semester I taught the 4th year of the Russian language, a course for advanced students who could read well, spoke well and wrote good essays. It was a pleasure to teach such a course – you could talk about almost everything that came to mind, they wrote funny and interesting essays, the discussions sparkled with wit. I remember it was a very fun class, we joked a lot, and the students loved my absurd humor. There were 15 of them, and everyone was very inspired by the class and very warmly disposed towards me.
In this class was one of my favorite students, Dan Rice, a privileged handsome fellow from the same Birmingham where my parents lived, a big patriot of the “Detroit” region, who became my guide to local music clubs, ethnic eateries and “hipster” clothing stores .
There was also an absolutely amazing young man in the class – the son of some super high-ranking vice president of the Columbia record company, whose musical products we all used. I don’t remember his name, I only remember that he was very tall, long-haired, in all fashionable clothes and tattoos. He walked with the wobbling gait of the drug addict that he was. He was thin and pale, somehow inappropriately waved his arms and laughed at something of his otherworldly nature. He was very friendly, generous – his pockets were full of money, and for our lunches with students he brought bottles of champagne with him, which I had to forbid him to uncork, because I did not dare to drink with students during working hours. This guy was sent to us at the University of Michigan by his father, who was prominent and generous with large financial gifts to the university, he was an alumnus of it, and, tortured by his son’s drug addiction, the father sent the young dunce to us in the hope that he would be carried away by education and leave drugs. It so happened that before coming to us, the dunce spent a year in Leningrad on an exchange program, during which he was detained for drugs and almost expelled from the USSR, but the intervention of dad and someone from the embassy settled the problem. Meanwhile, the young man learned to speak Russian well and swear especially luxuriously, which I did not initially know about. And then this long-haired, otherworldly smiling, thin and wobbling creature appears in my class and enters into a conversation with me, where it is delicious and skillful, although he swears with an accent, and then reads out loud his essay about adventures in Leningrad with some “young piz-kami”, and I’m just tearing up with laughter and delight about his luxurious vocabulary. The guy, indeed, swore so well that he could practically say anything, almost without resorting to censorship words. In fact, I have never heard such obscene brilliance from any foreigner, either before or after.
One day I took my class to the on-campus art museum (which, by the way, was not only in a very architecturally interesting building, but also contained a very representative collection of contemporary art). The point of such a trip was to discuss works of art in Russian with students and then ask them to write essays about what they saw, using the appropriate vocabulary that I gave them. My drug addict, on the way to the museum where we were supposed to meet, apparently shied, and then, feeling that something was still missing, he added a couple of glasses of something at the bar and arrived at the museum already completely “on the eyebrows”, and immediately entered into a verbal skirmish with a security guard who refused to let him into the museum. I decided to stay away from this and went with the class to the museum, which was located on the second floor. There we walked for a while, looking at paintings and sculptures, and from below there were sounds of bickering between the dunce and the guard. At some point, the guy, who, apparently, was rarely denied anything in life by loving parents, teachers, and girlfriends, suddenly made a powerful dash up the stairs in order to join us. But he was caught by the oncoming guards and taken somewhere by them. After that, it turned out that he disappeared for several days, he was wanted all over the city, and it turned out that at some point he apparently got sober, rented a car and left for Cleveland, where he was found by his girlfriend and officials involved in that the program under which he came to us. His dad was furious and immediately took the dunce back to New York. In total, he may have only stayed with us for a couple of weeks or a month, and therefore no one remembered him, except for me, because his ability to swear superbly in Russian led me to the dangerous idea of holding a lecture or a couple of lectures on obscenities in my class.
Because at some point the class was, of course, talking about Russian swearing, swearing, swearing and cursing. I mentioned to them that this is a very close topic for me, and that Titunik and I are working on updating the Dictionary of Russian Obscene Speech, published many years ago by the University of California at Berkeley (this project did not lead to anything).
My students were very impressed with this project and began to ask me to teach them Russian foul language.
I somehow understood that this territory is not entirely safe, that someone may have objections, someone will find my dictionary selected offensive, and therefore initially refused to introduce them to the obscene dictionary. Purely out of caution. And, of course, I myself was undermined by the desire to do several classes on the mat, to pronounce all these words close to me in full voice in the class, write them on the board and give students the task of writing essays using the mat and read them to the class. Well, just a dream of any teacher! Holy grail! Moreover, the class was on the whole united in their interest in Russian swearing and burned with enthusiasm. Their unity also encouraged me, and I somehow decided that, perhaps, this group of students could be trusted. But before giving the swearing class, I did do an opinion poll where I gave them a heads up saying that I needed absolute unity in their desire to take the swearing class. And if there is at least one person in the class who may find it unpleasant, I expect this person to hear his objections, and in this case I refuse to conduct such a lecture. A poll of votes, however, showed that there were no doubters.
Encouraged and elated, I prepared a lecture, but before it started I asked the class again if anyone had any objections or concerns, after all, the vocabulary with which I will introduce them will be very difficult. There were none.
The class, rather, two classes dedicated to obscenities were very fun. In first grade, I introduced them to the dictionary, explained semantics, showed them usage, and started working on pronunciation. In the second grade, they were supposed to bring essays written at home using an obscene dictionary. When they read out their essays, we laughed almost to the point of colic, it was all so witty and fun. And no objections!
The next day after the second grade, I come to the pulpit and the secretary Nora, with the stone face of an Aztec god, ominously tells me that the head. department, and at that time the head was John Mercer, who did not like me, the same one who shortly before that tried to deprive me of my scholarship, and it was only thanks to my friend Yura Ilyushchenko, who refused the teaching rate in my favor, that I taught this course. And Merceret had a grudge against me a long time ago, when I first registered for his seminar on Lermontov, and then dropped this seminar and took a seminar on Tsvetaeva from Michael Makin instead. Thus, I simultaneously acquired an enemy and a friend … Merceret never forgave me for Tsvetaeva’s preference for Lermontov.
And so I go into his office, and he sits at the table and looks at me somewhat bewildered, and I look at him with interest, not expecting anything good, but not even close guessing what he will start talking about. And he says: “Here, you see, Mark, we received a complaint from a couple of students in your 4th year Russian class.”
And I look at him, not yet guessing what he might be talking about.
“So,” says Merceret, “this pair of students writes that you are teaching them some radically indecent vocabulary. Is it so?”
I start mooing that the dictionary may be somewhat extreme and contains obscene concepts and expressions, but I do this at the request of the students and initially warned them what kind of dictionary we would be dealing with, and asked them if there were anyone has objections to this kind of class, and no one objected or even showed any doubt.
“Yes, I understand,” Merceret said suddenly kindly, “you did the right thing in warning them and asking their consent. Then, apparently, having already encountered the vocabulary that you taught them, these two “signatories” of the complaint changed their minds.”
“Well, they should have told me about it first of all, and not immediately write complaints. I could completely change the content of the class if it was offensive to them.”
“Yes, I understand,” Merceret said sadly, and turning away from me, looked out the window. He blushed all over, and it seemed to me that he was ashamed of what was happening.
“Well, Mark, under normal circumstances, I would limit our conversation to this. And this business would not have gone any further. I would ask you to be more careful, more delicate. But the matter is not easy. The two sent a copy of their complaint to the dean’s office. Therefore, it will not work to muffle all this here in our home circle, at the department. I have to respond somehow.”
“Yes,” I asked, “how do you think you’ll react?”
“Well, anyway,” said Merceret, “it shouldn’t happen again. And to avoid temptations, starting tomorrow, you will teach the initial course of the language: the second semester of the first year. Here you will have limited opportunities to swear.”
I was, of course, extremely upset. Teaching at the level of the first year is an incredible longing – one grammar in which I am not strong. In addition, I was very hurt by the betrayal of these two students. Of course, I knew perfectly well who they were – in the left corner near the window sat this quiet transparent couple – a boy and a girl, ugly, very modestly dressed and quiet. They had a good command of the language and always took a rather lively part in my classes – both in conversations and in discussions. I somehow noticed out of the corner of my eye that during my swearing classes they were somehow very quiet and did not at all raise their hands to speak first, or did not burst with enthusiasm to swear in class. But still they cursed with everyone, uttering forbidden words in chorus, practicing pronunciation and intonation, and read their compositions to the class, where they used swearing no worse than my more relaxed students.
I was told by a student at the beginning of the semester that this couple, cousin and cousin, are from a very religious family, from the conservative city of Grand Rapids in western Michigan. Coming up with a class with swear words, I had, of course, to remember this couple and act accordingly, i.e. more restrained, but the desire to swear in class was undermining me very much, and I negligently missed the signals of possible danger.
“Of course, I understand that this is nonsense, and that, in general, we are punishing you, as it were, for your creative impulse, for your teaching invention and ingenuity. This is not true, and I am very sorry that they sent a copy of their complaint to the dean’s office, ”Merceret sounded sincere and plausible, and it was hard for me not to believe him.
“Do you really want to know what their complaint is?” he suddenly asked.
I nodded in agreement.
He picked up a sheet of paper from the table and began to read: “Mark Ioffe is a capable teacher with great knowledge and enthusiasm for teaching students. However, it seems to us that he deliberately makes us utter all sorts of obscene words in class, getting some kind of perverse pleasure from this . .. ”
“Read more? Or is everything clear? Mercer asked.
Everything was clear to me. I never taught Russian again.
And I often met a boy and a girl, these religious swindlers, on campus. They always looked at me in the most innocent way, as if they had done nothing wrong with me.
I began to think – maybe they don’t understand that it’s low to slander. Apparently not… And then I thought: maybe they didn’t send letters to the dean’s office? This is too purposeful and thoughtful behavior for them. Maybe Merceret came up with it himself – about the copy to the dean’s office? And then, both he and Nora the secretary said that these two came to his office to talk about what was happening. It is possible that he advised them to write a letter, and whether he advised sending a copy to the dean’s office, we will never know, but the fact that he did not dissuade them from sending a letter does not say anything good about this situation to me.
And in such situations, friends like David Haas or John and Satik Kennedy were needed to complain, whine, scold villains and traitors, listen to speeches of support and understanding.
Professor Michael Makin, whom I considered one of our closest friends during my last years at Ann Arbor, was of course not a simple, straightforward phenomenon, and still remains inexplicable.
He played a pivotal role in my academic career or whatever it was that I managed to accomplish. I can be indebted to him for support, or he should be blamed for bad advice – that’s how you look at it. But, as a matter of fact, both then and now I look at his interest in my unusual dissertation project with gratitude. His support and interest seemed absolutely sincere, and the help was indispensable. He, in fact, pushed through my dissertation, gave it the go-ahead, and it was born only thanks to his interest in her (and in me).
Michael appeared in our department in 1984, I think, in the fall. He came to us from England, from Oxford University, as a temporary guest lecturer, I think, for a year or two.
Michael immediately caught the eye (and ear!), because he looked and sounded very different from all our students and professors. He was very imposing – he walked in wide khaki military-type trousers with huge patch pockets, tucked into beautiful high, lace-up boots above the ankles, either military or simply for adventure purposes. He had a beautiful bushy beard and a head of coarse brown hair. He was thin, lean and tall. In addition, he had some absolutely awesome accent in English, which we called Oxford (I don’t know if it was so) and which at first I understood with great difficulty. Michael, it turned out, spoke very good Russian, and over time he spoke just fine, and in the future we mainly communicated with him in Russian, which, by the way, was his choice.
Michael has just completed his doctorate at the illustrious Oxford University, which everyone in our department bowed to – both professors and students. At Oxford he was acquainted with Isaiah Berlin himself, was friends and drunk with the famous conductor Yuri Temirkanov and was close (romantically, it seems) with the international grand dame of the Slavic sciences, the most famous Catriona Kelly.
But we, of course, showing all respect and hospitality to Michael, did not want to let him know that he was somehow better than ours. We tried to stay as equal as possible.
In the first months, we students watched him from the sidelines and even laughed a little at his British manners and artsy (or exaggerated?), as it seemed to us at first, accent. Michael was young, self-confident, ambitious and at the same time insecure and shy. He wanted to leave the impression of a serious scientist and, at the same time, a simple and accessible guy.
Sonya and I somehow initially liked him, apparently, the fact that we were emigrants impressed him. But for the first time we were in his company a few months after his arrival. It so happened that his arrival coincided with the fact that at our department at that time there was a vacancy for a professorship in the literature of the twentieth century. Michael, with his dissertation on Tsvetaeva, was the perfect fit for this position. Of course, an international competition was announced for the place, in which Michael also participated, it seems, among the three candidates.
But students and professors liked Michael, and therefore the advantage was clearly on his side. He gave an interesting, apparently, lecture, from which I, however, did not understand much due to his accent. But we, the students, unanimously voted in his favor, although I don’t remember if anyone listened to our votes. On the day of his public lecture, in the evening, Joseph Brodsky spoke in the city, and, as always, the poet indulged in moralizing and got very excited, and spoke pompously and edifyingly. It seems that he scolded the Soviet government and those in America who suffer from illusions about it. When Brodsky turned on, he was very handsome in his inspiration, and, as the ladies said, very sexy. So sexy that one of our classmates, a quiet girl named Janice, came up to him after the performance and said, “Joseph, you were hot! Very hot. ” Joseph was very grateful for the compliment and wanted to continue communicating with such a sincere admirer, but then Janice was embarrassed and some other more zealous admirers pushed the poet away from her.
We spent the rest of the evening at someone’s apartment, discussing with Janice whether, after her desperate words, she had a real opportunity to “fuck Joseph,” or everything would have been limited to conversation. Sonia and Janice, and everyone present, except me, because I didn’t drink then, were drunk, and then Michael appeared, handsome, in a suit, with trimmed hair and beard. He, too, was already drunk. Everyone began to congratulate him on an excellent report and offered to drink for it. And then it turned out that everything, well, absolutely everything, had already been drunk, and Michael showed for the first time his monetary generosity, unusual in American terms: he immediately offered to go to the store and stock up on drinks, which he did, bringing not some cheap beer, and a couple of bottles of vodka and wine – a potion that lasted us all night. Sonya and I immediately noted among ourselves his unusual generosity, which we subsequently enjoyed many times.
Then we were at his house, and I even helped him deliver his first computer bought in America from the store, I think the Macintosh – Michael did not have a car yet, and like a cool Englishman, he rode a bicycle around Ann Arbor.
In gratitude, he invited us Sonya to dinner, and then we invited him back.
We invited him for a reason, but with some idea: we decided to introduce him to our friend, also an emigrant, like Sonya, from Leningrad, a bohemian and an actress of the local theater, Lena Efimova, the daughter of the famous Russian writer and publisher Igor Efimov, which I wrote about earlier. Sonya and I thought that Michael and Lena should fit together as a couple, both tall, imposing, immersed in Russian poetry and united by love for Tsvetaeva. The evening turned out to be glorious, our pandering initially seemed to bear fruit: Lena expressed interest in seeing him in the future, and he asked for her phone number. Everything was on the ointment, when suddenly …
Suddenly Michael met Karl Proffer’s widow Elendea and the Cossack disappeared!
He didn’t call Lena anymore. Yes, and no one else interested him, he was stunned and captured in his thoughts and desires by the beautiful widow.
And we haven’t seen him for a long time since then. Many months. According to rumors, he spent all his time in the house of the Proffers, and his affair with Elendea seethed and foamed. Subsequently, much later, Michael drunkenly told us some of the intimate details of this novel – about what restaurants they ate in, which celebrities were visiting Elendea, and in what unusual places they made love.
As I said, while Michael was in orbit around Elendea, we didn’t really see each other, but we started to get closer when his romance faded and Michael started to create a new company for himself. His period of high society life ended with Elendea, and he decided to create an environment for himself from a much more democratic and simple people: graduate students (like Sonya and me), young professors, disc jockeys, cooks, and a whole company of Russian émigré youth who are incomprehensible activities, which became more and more in Ann Arbor. Sonya and I were always invited to Michael’s house for his famous super drunk parties. I met with him a wonderful Russian essayist and literary critic Yuri Karabchievsky, who, unfortunately, soon committed suicide.
At Michael’s, I first met one of the most remarkable Russian (and not only Russian) writers with whom I was fortunate enough to know – Yuri Miloslavsky, the famous author of the stories “Gather and Go” and “Fortified Cities”. Yuri and his wife, artist Elena Sarni, came to our department from Israel to write a doctoral dissertation on Pushkin’s epistolary legacy. Michael was very happy with him. Like taking him under your wing. He helped settle in Ann Arbor, and helped even in small things – from finding an apartment to buying furniture. Michael worked with Yuri on translations of his stories and contributed to the publication of an English-language collection of Yuri’s stories by Elendea Proffer at Ardis. Mile was simply in love with Yuri, who, it must be said, although he was a difficult and very, very difficult person, was distinguished at the same time by a strange charm that attracted, despite obvious arrogance, a complex of his own grandiosity and Yuri’s arrogance. In the future, of course, Michael and Yuri quarreled and stopped communicating. But that was later, just before Sonya and I left Ann Arbor on December 19.91 years old.
To be honest, I’m proud that I was and am probably one of the few (or maybe the only one at all!) With whom Yuri Miloslavsky never quarreled. While we were talking, since 1999, we were always in a respectful, even relationship, and then our paths simply parted and we stopped seeing each other.
This brings me to the history of my dissertation, in which Michael was directly involved as he became chairman of my dissertation committee. There is a special speech about this epic, and here it is necessary to tell in detail and continue the story about Michael Makin in detail.
We, of course, were lucky at our department that from time to time there came to us with short visits, then staying for a long time, all kinds of celebrities of Russian, Slavic and Eastern European culture. So, I was lucky to see and hear lectures and speeches, of course, by Joseph Brodsky, Sergey Dovlatov, Sasha Sokolov, Yuz Aleshkovsky, Alexei Tsvetkov, Bakhyt Kenzheev, Grigory Kruzhkov, Cheslov Milos, Thomas Venclova, Joseph Shkvoretsky, Tatyana Tolstaya, V. V. Ivanov, Yuri Karabchievsky, and even had the good fortune to be friends to some extent with Igor Efimov and Yuri Miloslavsky.
In addition, there were trips to Ann Arbor that were even more exotic and even more significant for me and had a key influence on the entire development of my further academic career. So, in the spring and summer of 1990, two wonderful, but wonderful in different ways, rock bands mysteriously came to us in Ann Arbor from Moscow: a little-known pop-punk band called “Gaza” (not to be confused with the famous ancestor of musical banter, the steb-punk band ” Gaza Strip”) and already famous throughout the cultural world “Sounds of Mu”. I met with them and became friends, and what happened to me as a result will now be discussed.
At first it was like this: in 1986, as a good thoughtful graduate student, in the field of Slavic studies in my third year of study, after passing the master’s exams, I begin to think about a future dissertation. My scientific inclinations of that time were mainly in the direction of studying the stylistics of foolishness, and I was thinking about developing in my dissertation a topic already familiar to me: either comparing the style of holy foolishness by Vasily Rozanov and Archpriest Avvakum, or tracing this stylistics from Avvakum (and earlier authors ) to Rozanov, Dostoevsky, the Futurists, the Oberiuts, Zoshchenko—and to Venechka Erofeev. The topic was interesting and I was attracted, no matter what the end. True, of course, the above-described, extremely unpleasant and traumatic conversation about the topic of my dissertation with Omri Ronen, which I quote earlier in these memoirs, plunged me into doubt and, to some extent, cooled my ardor, especially since I needed more pass the “qualifying” doctoral examinations, which included separate examinations in linguistics unknown to me and unloved, and in French, which I did not know. I somehow passed the German and Ukrainian languages with the help of my all the same friend, co-author and guardian angel Joe Krafchik. But French still had to be learned. Well, if not fully learn, then at least learn to read and translate with a dictionary.
And then one day in the winter of 1986, Sonya and I were sitting at the TV and watching an advertised BBC program about modern Soviet life and culture called “Comrades”. And the first program is dedicated to the phenomenon of Soviet rock, unprecedented for us in the West in those years. And in it they talk about Kuryokhin and Popular Mechanics, about Aquarium, about Alisa and Kinchev, introduce them to Africa, Grebenshchikov, Tsoi and other characters of the Leningrad rock party. We look at this case and just sail: everything that we see is so original, talented, full of invention and creativity, wit, courage, elegance. We just can’t believe our eyes. In our years in the Soviet Union, there was nothing of the kind even close. The rock that was was either VIA-rubbish like “Gems” or “Ariel”, where the best phenomena were the lop-moustached, but vociferous “Pesnyary”, or driven miserable hippies – rock underground without skill and without equipment. The exceptions were the giants of the Soviet avant-garde, whom we were lucky to see in Riga, such as the Ganelin trio from Vilnius, the ensemble of modern and ancient music of Alexei Lyubimov from Moscow, Madrigal by Mark Pekarsky, also from Moscow; composers such as Arvo Pärt from Estonia, Alexander Knaifel from Leningrad, Valentin Silvestrov from Kyiv and Vladimir Martynov from Moscow.
And so that there was some kind of special Soviet rock – nothing like this today, i.e. didn’t exist in the 70s. And suddenly the “comrades” show us everything so cool, drawn out, fashionable and, obviously, not built yesterday, but based on some kind of obviously developed tradition – these Leningrad musicians looked so confident in themselves and in their art.
I remember that one evening after this program, I drove home our friend, actress Lena Efimova, the daughter of the writer Igor Efimov, who also lived in Ann Arbor, and began to tell her about what I saw: “Can you imagine they have groups called “Alice”, where the dude sings all in a female make-up. Or a group called “Popular Mechanics”, which arranges a happening with pets on stage, and this is in the Union! There was nothing like it in our time.”
“Yes,” Lena lamented sadly, “there was nothing in our years. And it was worth leaving, as it blossomed with magnificent flowers. It’s a shame!
It was a pity that in our Soviet hippie years we did not get anything as cool and wonderful as the Leningrad rock party seen in that program.
A few months passed, and the American media – from TV to newspapers and magazines and public radio – bubbling with the news about the release in America of a double album containing recordings of four Soviet rock bands called “Red Wave”. It turned out that some desperate, rich and well-connected American girl named Joanna Stingray became friends with the musicians of Aquarium, Kino, Alice and Strange Games during her stay in Leningrad, smuggled out recordings of their music, and in America, with the help of Christopher Cross and David Bowie himself, she published this double album – each side of the two records included in it represented one of the groups.
Later, already in Washington, I met Joanna Stingray and found her an excellent, desperate and cheerful aunt a little younger than me, a Californian juicy blonde, accustomed to a good and interesting life, with a well-developed intuition and sense of humor. And what she did in her youth for Soviet rock and indirectly for me, in particular, was equal to an exploding cultural grenade: everything in the album was talented, fresh and spoke of what was in the country, or at least in Leningrad , in Soviet rock there is already a tradition that people do not make their music spontaneously, but with knowledge of the matter and an understanding of how and what to do. And from the photos on the cover and inserts of the album, cool handsome men looked at us, fashionably dressed, photographed in moments of stage ecstasy in all their beauty and elegance. Looking at them, I wanted to be just like them. We were peers.
I still somehow kept on thinking about my dissertation on Russian holy fools.
And then an event occurred that had an epiphanic effect on me and finished off the poor guy completely.
There are moments in life when something seemingly insignificant suddenly produces a complete and irrevocable turn in your life. A revolution after which everything changes and never becomes the same as it was before, when you suddenly enter a completely new road and fry along it and fry, probably to the end.
There were omens, of course.
When a very long time ago, as a teenager, probably 16-17 years old, even before entering the Latvian State University at the Department of Philology, I sat at our dacha near Riga in the Latvian fishing village of Apsuciems, well-known among the Russian intelligentsia, at the desk and read. And I read, as always, something about rock music from that small assortment printed on this topic in the Soviet Union. It could be the Foreign Literature magazine, where notes about rock sometimes leaked out, or the Literary Gazette, where this also happened, or the Peer magazine, which was supposed to write on this topic and wrote more or less often. My mother came into my room to inquire about what I was doing there and saw me doing my quiet work. A conversation ensued, during which she asked, so what do I still want to do in life, and here, and I remember it like now, I answered, even somewhat unexpectedly for myself, that no matter what I do, I know that my life will forever be associated with rock music.
Then, already in America, and already in Ann Arbor, I remembered these unexpected words of mine and was surprised at them, because upon arrival in America, I gradually lost interest in rock and for the first few years of my life in Ann Arbor I did not follow and listen to it just the old favorite. I was not a particular music lover at the time of the release of The Red Wave. But I was so carried away and shocked by the charm of the music of these Soviet musicians that, as a result, the fountain of interest in rock music in my soul began to seethe with renewed vigor.
We had a friend Eric in Ann Arbor – a hefty dunce, whom we called Erichka. He was 5-6 years younger than us, he worked in the university library in the Slavic department, under the supervision of my wife Sonya, some kind of petty clerk. He was a drug addict, a drunkard, a lover of rap music and a fan of the obscure but scandalous writings of William Burroughs, with whom, by the way, he introduced me. The son of a three-star air general, he grew up on American military bases and therefore swore splendidly in English, had an inexhaustible stream of money that a generous dad poured out on him, and spent this money on beer, from which, with a thin and lanky body, he grew a huge and belly round like a ball, drugs ranging from mild drugs like marijuana and hashish to serious ones like mushrooms, LSD, cocaine and even heroin, which Erichka didn’t inject into a vein, but smoked. For us, he was a guide to the world of all the most fashionable, the coolest in music, pop culture and pop literature. He introduced us to the news of rap, about which we knew nothing, free jazz, which I was somewhat aware of back from Riga, literary novelties of that time – like Bret Ellis, or beatnik classics – like Jack Kerouac, or the same Burroughs.
It was this Erichka who introduced me to psychedelic mushrooms for the first time, an experience that was as scary as it was interesting, and spiritually indispensable. Erichka and I have been talking for a long time about how it would be nice for us to go on a drug trip together. For some reason I was afraid to take LSD in those years. Heard a lot of bad things about him. And mushrooms, about which I read a lot in anthropological literature as a sacred drug of the Indians of Mexico and Arizona, as a guide to magical secrets, as a door to other worlds, were of great interest to me. In the end, Erichka was very interested in the idea of going with me on such a spiritual drug journey in which he would be my guide. He was very experienced with drugs and I trusted him completely. Moreover, he was very friendly towards Sonya and me, because we advised him to go to study at a library school and even helped him prepare all the papers needed for admission. And the father-general, of course, paid for the studies of his overgrown dunce.
Erichka was so carried away by the idea of a joint “journey” that he didn’t even take money for mushrooms, and they certainly cost no less than a hundred dollars. Sonya, as a result, decided not to join us, but, on the contrary, to stay sober in order to help us if necessary. Having a sober person nearby is very important in such circumstances.
Since Erichka bought mushrooms for three people, we still had a spare dose, and I invited my former classmate at the University of Riga, Slava, who at that time lived in Ann Arbor, became a defector to the Soviet Union, to participate in the trip. Slava and I were connected by a long-standing Soviet-era friendship, which, according to his appearance in Ann Arbor during perestroika, in 1989Oh, it kind of faded away. It turned out that over the 10 years of our separation, we have changed a lot and did not meet mutual expectations.
That evening, most likely on Friday after work, Slava came to visit us, then Erichka pulled himself up. We had something to eat so as not to be hungry during the “trip”. They put on video a fabulously beautiful and psychedelic film directed by Borman “Excalibur” about King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table. Erichka gave Slava and me portions of mushrooms, which smelled like excrement and tasted disgusting too. For us, he mixed black mushroom paste with honey, otherwise it would be too disgusting to consume them. Erichka himself habitually swallowed them without any honey and licked his fingers.
We sat down at the TV to watch a movie and wait for the fun from the mushrooms to subside.
The buzz didn’t start for a long time. Probably half an hour or 40 minutes. We dutifully, quietly sat with Slava, looking at the screen, and from time to time asked each other: how is it? And it was quite a long time somehow absolutely nothing.
Then suddenly something began to appear, like the sounds began to distort, the colors somehow floated, or the action on the screen somehow began to slow down and change. It didn’t happen all the time, but kind of interspersed with “normal”, undistorted moments, so it was impossible to say with certainty whether the drug worked for us or not. It began to seem to me that it was not bad at all and even a buzz. Everything began to resemble what was seen in the films about the drug experiments of American hippies, colors, sounds – well, straight, pure “Yellow Submarine” of the Beatles. I began to rejoice at what was happening and Erichka too. And suddenly I turn to Slava and see that something is wrong with him: there is panic on his face, he is completely red and turns his head in panic with bulging eyes from side to side.
And he says: “Markusha, something sucks. Somehow not in a buzz … “I look at him in surprise and try to understand, and he continues:” This Eric of yours poisoned us!
And then a wild panic seized me. What if Glory is right?!
And then it starts!
I look at the TV screen, where the film about King Arthur, which I have seen a thousand times, is being played, and there something completely unseen happens before, some new scenes and characters, everything changes slowly, then very quickly, colors boil and mix, naked Fairy Morgana, performed by the sweet Hellen Mirren, suddenly turns around to face us, and one of her breasts stretches out in my direction, thickens like a balloon, blushes as if enveloped in flames from the inside, and suddenly breaks off and flies a golden fiery drop into my face, splashing all over sides sparkling sparks. I tilt my head and the fiery titty-ball with the sound of “woof” slowly sweeps past my cheek. To which Slava yells from somewhere far away: “Here, next time she won’t miss!”
I turn to Erica and ask: “Is it supposed to be like this?” He laughs soundlessly and toothlessly, and instead of a mouth he has a black flaw, and I think: we should just sit out until it passes.
Slava on the next sofa laughs like crazy, saying: “It’s, like, if you are a radio receiver and you change channels, but you forgot which channel is your main one …”
And he looks at me with eyes full of horror: “ What if I don’t remember what my main channel is?! So all your life you will have to pretend that you are from some other channel! So it’s terrible! How to live like this?
I couldn’t help but agree that the situation put in this way is terrible, and again turned to Erichka, who, bulging his eyes, brought his huge flushed mug close to my face and yelled: “Don’t yawn – you need to write it down! Write down! In order not to get lost!
Then I understand that it is really possible not to return to my range, and I decide to go outside to freshen up – Slava rushes after me.
We stand in the yard and stare at the sky. It is full of flashing dots and gradually deepens and blackens, sucking you deeper and deeper into the darkness. Looking at the sky is extremely unproductive, and besides, the luminous points in it begin to rotate, which makes you dizzy, and you begin to be afraid of falling onto the asphalt. Which seems like a very scary prospect, because no one will find you here.
Slava seems to be experiencing something similar, because she says excitedly: “Don’t look at the sky – it will suck you in!”
We cling to each other and, like two wounded soldiers, leaning on one another, walk in circles around the flower bed.
Here someone inexpressibly tall and terrible approaches us, with the face of a demon, a huge bent nose, piercing eyes and disheveled hair. He is slowly, as if in slow motion, mumbling scary words, their meaning is obscure, but I suddenly recognize him – this is our good friend in normal life, also a graduate student in musicology David Haas, and now he is a devil and very sinister. Seeing us near the flower bed, he laughs nastily and goes into the house. Then it turned out that it was Sonya who called him to help her deal with three stoned dudes.
When I came back to the house, I found Sonya and David sitting near the TV and apparently having a peaceful snack. Erichka lay in a chair and waved his arms like a giant lobster with claws, and wombly broadcast: “This is a movie! Creepy movie. It has already ended an hour ago, and everything continues. It goes and goes… Some bullshit.”
Slava says to him reproachfully: “Are you sure that they didn’t plant poisoned mushrooms on you?”
Erichka mimics him: “Poisoned! Especially to destroy you, Slava. Perhaps the KGB?
Slava whispers to me: “I don’t trust him. The dude is a drug addict, he does not understand what he eats.
I’m not up to it. I don’t want to listen to Slava with his conspiracy theories, or Erichka with his discussion of a finished but still ongoing film.
I want to sit quietly on the ottoman so that no one notices me and wait for this obsession to pass, if it certainly does.
I’m sitting and suddenly I feel like a huge physiological wave is brewing in my body: I feel sick, I’m shaking with chills, I want to use the potty and I want to pee, and I wouldn’t refuse sex.
Some kind of irreversible revolution is taking place in my pants, it is seething and everything is rushing out. And suddenly I vomit right on the floor beside me and at the same time I feel that I defecate in my pants with relief, and then I pee in them and after that I also end up in my pants, slowly and somehow inexpressibly sweet.
And I’m sitting in vomit, feces, urine and semen, and I think, the main thing is that no one should notice such a shame, and that you need to somehow get to the toilet without spilling it all over the apartment. But that’s later, and now you have to sit quietly. Then Slava creeps up to me from the sofa and idiotically and smiling contentedly says: “But I’ve finished. And most importantly, five times. In sequence.”
Then he sits silently for a while, smiling blissfully, and says: “Looks like I crap myself…”
I move my nose, but I don’t smell it. Suspicion rolls into what’s left of my brain – I put my hand in my pants to check the extent of the nightmare that should have been in them, and the hand comes back dry and clean: there is no bowel movement.
This cheers me up. I’m beginning to realize that this was a huge physiological hallucination. I asked Sonya: “Did you happen to notice if I messed up here?”
“I guess not,” she replies, “you seem to have been sitting quietly for half an hour and not doing anything at all.”
Then again everything is carried away into some kind of whirlwind, the demonic David comes up, looks into my face and laughs, saying: “Well, did you trust me?”.
Slava is swaying from side to side on the couch, clasping her head in her hands, and moaning: “Don’t let David near you. He’s from hell! It will take our minds away.”
It scares me. But I do not trust Slava, because I see that he seems to have lost his mind. I don’t want to be like him, pathetic and scared.
Slava lies down on the sofa and says: “That’s it. I’m dying. Your Eric poisoned us in FIG. Now it’s all over. I can’t fight anymore.”
And then I feel that I’m wildly tired… That I can’t fight anymore either. Probably some huge amount of time has passed since our intake of mushrooms. Maybe several days. I have no strength to endure this hurricane of changeable visions and sensations. I agree not to be. It’s better not to be. It’s better to die.
I realize that everything that preceded this moment was agony and that I am poisoned and dying.
I accept this thought. I agree to die and even want to. You can’t fight anymore. Calm comes. Death is sweet and desirable. Sonya tucks me into bed and I gratefully fall asleep. Or I die, and I am glad, bright and calm.
I wake up very clean. It feels like someone has taken a metal brush or coarse sandpaper and scraped me from the inside. And I became pure and transparent. I feel holy. And as if soaring above the surroundings. I am weak. I stand in the shower for about an hour and enjoy the warmth of the water. Then I can’t even drive. But I’m very happy with the feel.
Slava later reported something similar – about the process of death, agony, resistance and the final acceptance of death.
This, my friends, is a powerful experience. Very enriching. I recommend.
Slava and Erichka never spoke to each other again. Slava was sure that Erichka screwed up, gave us the wrong drug or the wrong dose, but Erichka decided forever that Slava was a weakling and a whiner.
David and Sonia said that the whole evening was very boring. That Slava and I sat quietly in our corners. It was impossible to talk to us. And we didn’t do anything interesting and didn’t say anything. Erichka is another matter, he crawled on the floor and danced, waving his limbs wildly. And we just sat and everything, from time to time muttered: “Oh, something sucks.”
(to be continued)
The best and worst US cities for freelancers in 2019
Flexibility has now become the #1 priority for workers as technological advances make it more difficult than ever to maintain a work-life balance.
In fact, a recent survey conducted by the online platform FlexJobs found that 71% of millennials chose to leave their main job because the employer did not offer flexible work arrangements. And 28% of those surveyed said they were actually willing to give up vacation in exchange for more flexibility or the ability to work remotely.
Indeed, more companies are starting to relax their strict 9 to 5 policies, but it is millennials who are actively looking for career opportunities that will fit in with their active, ever-changing lifestyles. This is one of the factors leading to the growth of the modern freelance economy. According to a Freelancers Union and Upwork report, there are currently 56.7 million freelancers in the US, up 3.7 million from the past five years.
While freelancing offers many “luxury” workflow conditions: such as the freedom to choose projects, clients and working hours; the ability to control your income and earn more money, there are a number of other factors to consider when deciding to leave your main job.
Location is one of them.
Not all cities are “freelancer friendly”
Work anywhere, from your home office or sofa to your local coffee shop. It’s tempting, but freelancers should beware: not all cities are “freelancer friendly.” For example, in some cities, internet speeds are much slower and rents are high. Others have limited means of getting around the city, which is a problem for freelancers who need to meet with clients regularly. Some regions lack a vibrant freelancing market.
“Cities should strive to attract freelancers because they are good for the local economy. Thanks to the well-known “multiplier effect”, the move of one freelancer to the city contributes to the creation of up to 4.3 jobs. The freelancer spends the money he or she earns locally, which in turn creates jobs for lawyers and schoolteachers, dentists, retailers, and restaurant workers.” – Says Stephane Kasriel, CEO of Upwork, a global freelancing platform where businesses and independent professionals meet and collaborate remotely.
To make life easier for current or aspiring freelancers, Neighbourhoods. com has created a ranking of the best and worst cities in the US for those who choose to freelance.
For its rankings, Neighbourhoods.com analyzed US Census Bureau data from over 150 cities and compared these cities across five metrics, including average rent, average internet speed, coffee shops per capita, income taxes (based on a freelancer’s median income of $52,074). ) and ease of movement around the city. All metrics were weighted equally, 20 points each.
Below are the best and worst cities for freelancers, according to Neighbourhoods.com.
Cost of living
Top cities: Tempe, Arizona; Spokane, Washington; Las Vegas and San Antonio
The cost of living is one of the most important factors for freelancers. For this measure, Neighborhoods.com looked at both the median one-bedroom rent and income tax (assuming the median freelancer income was $52,074). The average rent of the top 30 cities on this list is $1139. In the top cities listed above, the median rent was less than $1,000.
Internet speed
Top cities: Austin, San Antonio, Garland, Texas
Most freelancers depend on the internet, so fast and reliable is a priority. If the internet speed is slow, it may take longer to complete the project, which means potential loss of future work. If fast internet is a top priority, the state of Texas is worth considering. According to BroadbandNow, six Texas cities are in Neighbourhood.com’s top 30, and three of them (Austin, San Antonio, and Garland) offer download speeds of 60Mbps or faster.
Easy to get around town
Top cities: St. Paul, Minnesota; Tempe, Arizona; Ann Arbor, Michigan; Pittsburgh; Salt Lake City; Tacoma, Washington; Hialeah, Florida; and Fort Lauderdale
For freelancers, not only the speed of the Internet is important, but also the ease of movement around the city. From meeting clients to finding the perfect coffee shop, freelancers are no strangers to walking all day long.
Freelancers who need to move quickly around the city should look at the following cities: St. Paul, Minnesota; Tempe, Arizona; Ann Arbor, Michigan; Pittsburgh; Salt Lake City; Tacoma, Washington; Hialeah, Florida; and Fort Lauderdale.
Coffee houses
Top cities: Las Vegas, Nevada; Spokane, Vancouver and Tacoma, Washington
According to Kasriel, coffee shops are more important to freelancers than many think. Upwork survey conducted in the United States in 2019year, found that nearly two-thirds, or 64%, of freelancers say they are interested in working in alternative jobs such as coffee shops.
Neighborhoods.com analyzed data from over 20,000 Starbucks caffeines to determine which cities had the most Starbucks caffeine per 100,000 people. Result: Las Vegas is #1 when it comes to Starbucks per capita. Spokane and Tacoma also have large amounts of Starbucks caffeine.
The sixth metric? Kasriel argues that a sixth metric, the number of freelancers in a given city, should have been included in Neighbourhoods. com’s study.
“One of the biggest challenges for remote workers can be isolation. That’s why it’s so important to have a local community of like-minded professionals who can support you and help you make the right connections. The more freelancers in one place, the more efficient they are,” says.
Kasriel also claims that, according to a 2019 Upwork study, 46% of freelancers are unable to work for a traditional employer due to personal circumstances such as health issues or family responsibilities.
“Cities should take this into account when offering services such as affordable child care, community parks and access assistance for people with disabilities,” he says.
°HOTEL SONESTA ES SUITES ANN ARBOR Ann Arbor, MI 3* (USA) – from 10620 RUB
Very good1717 reviews10
Sonesta Es Suites Ann Arbor – Ann Arbor
42. 239216,
-83.736855
-
Ann Arbor,
USA - |
- +1-855-260-7038
10620Rub
75 photo
75 photo
75 photo
75 photo
75 photo
800 Victors Way,
Ann Arbor,
Michigan,
USA,
48108,
Michigan
Show map
Description
Sonesta Es Suites Ann Arbor with high speed internet throughout the property is located 3 km from Michigan Stadium. Also the hotel is at 900 meters from Briarwood Shopping Centre.
Location
It is located 4 km from downtown Ann Arbor, in the business district. This hotel is located a short distance from several noted attractions including Briarwood Mall Shopping Center.
Bus stop “#6, 36” is located 400 meters from the hotel.
Rooms
Guests can enjoy air-conditioned rooms with a flat-screen cable TV, flat-screen TV with satellite channels and free Wi-Fi. Guests will appreciate the view of the arena. The rooms have private bathrooms.
Dining
Sonesta Es Suites Ann Arbor serves a buffet breakfast daily. Buffalo Wild Wings and Seoul Garden are located next door, 600 meters from the hotel.
Affordably priced continental breakfast is served each morning.
Leisure and business
The hotel has a bar and sports court, as well as a fitness center, fitness classes and a gym for sports enthusiasts.
Internet
Free Wi-Fi is available throughout the hotel.
Parking
Free public parking is available on site.
Year of reconstruction: 2010.
Number of rooms: 114.
Formerly: Residence Inn Ann Arbor
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Amenities
Most Popular Amenities
Parking
On-site parking
Luggage storage
24-hour service
24-hour reception
24-hour security
Meals/Beverages
Buffet Restaurant
Picnic Tables
Gym / Fitness
Fitness studio
Pool
Outdoor pool
Spa and body care
Spa
General
- Wi-Fi
- Parking lot
- Luggage storage
- 24 hour service
- Food/ Drinks
- Gym / Fitness
- Pool
- Spa and body care
Sports & Fitness
- Fitness Center
- Skiing
- Tennis
- Golf course
- Fitness studio
Services
- Room service
- Laundry
- Dry cleaning
- Shops/ commercial services
Meals
- Continental breakfast
- Buffet Restaurant
- Picnic tables
- Buffet
For work
- Business center
- Fax/photocopy
For children
- Board games
Facilities for people with disabilities
- Toilet for people with disabilities
Leisure
- Outdoor swimming pool
- Barbecue
- Lounge / Cinema
- Spa
View from room
- City view
- Pool view
- River view
- Panoramic view
Amenities in the room
- Air conditioning
- Heating
- Safe in room
- Rest area
- Garden furniture
- Tea/coffee set
- Dining table
- Ironing accessories
Bathroom
- Bath
Kitchenware
- Kitchen
Media
- Flat screen TV
- Telephone
- Alarm clock radio
Interior
- Carpeted floor
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Important information
FREECheck-out until 11:00FREE
Extra bedsThere are no extra beds available in a room.
Pets Pets are allowed on request.
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Rooms & Availability
Two-Bedroom Wheelchair Accessible King Suite
-
Beds to choose from:
Queen bed
-
Max:
5 guests
Room Details
One Bedroom King Suite
-
Beds to choose from:
King-size bed
-
Max:
4 guests
-
Free Wi-Fi
-
Non-smoking room
-
Fireplace
org/LocationFeatureSpecification”>
Air conditioner
More about the room
Family suite
-
Max:
2 guests
-
Pool view
-
Free Wi-Fi
-
Coffee machine
-
Heating
org/LocationFeatureSpecification”>
Air conditioner
Detailed number
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Location
800 Victors Way,
Ann Arbor,
Michigan,
USA,
48108,
Michigan
- Famous places of the city
- Nearby
- Restaurants
Briarwood Mall Shopping Center
900 m
Briarwood Mall Shopping Center
1.1
km
Colonnade Shopping Center
1.3
km
Museum
Museum of Entertaining Science Ann Arbor
4.7
km
Georgetown Mall Shopping Center
1.8
km
Whirly Ball of Ann Arbor
990 m
Zap Zone Lazer Tag
1.1
km
Frisinger Park
2.4
km
1116 S State St
Yost Ice Palace
3.4
km
Golf course
University of Michigan Golf Course
2. 3
km
3723 Plaza Dr
Zingerman’s Bakehouse
1.5
km
Jewel Heart
1.5
km
Park
Mary Beth Doyle Park
2.2
km
Stadium
Michigan Stadium
3.6
km
Ann Arbor Airport
1.6
km
Arbor Bridge Church
1.6
km
Church
Ann Arbor Hope Church
1.6
km
Kingdom Hall of Jehovah’s Witnesses
1.7
km
1201 S Main St
Ann Arbor
3.6
km
Lamaze Childbirth Preparation
1.8
km
Church
Church of the Good Shepherd UCC
1.8
km
Church of the Good Shepard
1.8
km
Synagogue
Temple Beth Emeth
1.8
km
Church
King of Kings Lutheran Church
1.8
km
Church
Crossroads Community Baptist Church
1.8
km
Market
Cobblestone Farm Recreation Area
2.2
km
Park
Park Buhr
2. 5
km
1365 King George Blvd
Georgetown Country Club
2.0
km
Basketball Sports Palace Crisler Arena
3.4
km
Colonial Lanes Bowling Ctr
2.1
km
Technology Management Office
540 m
620 Briarwood Cir
Panda Express
560 m
Transport
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Need a transfer?
You can book your transfer after you have completed your booking at the hotel.
Reviews
7.6
Very Good17 reviews
Location7.4
Room5.8
Service7.6
FAQ
FAQ
Sonesta Es Suites Ann Arbor is located 45 km from the Detroit Metropolitan Airport.
Is breakfast available at Sonesta Es Suites Ann Arbor?
Yes, Sonesta Es Suites Ann Arbor offers a buffet breakfast.
Sonesta Es Suites Ann Arbor suitable for business trips and business meetings?
Yes, Sonesta Es Suites Ann Arbor offers catering and a business center.
What are the cancellation policies for Sonesta Es Suites Ann Arbor?
Free cancellation at Sonesta Es Suites Ann Arbor.
How far is Sonesta Es Suites Ann Arbor from the city center?
The distance between Sonesta Es Suites Ann Arbor and the city center is 4 km.
Are the rooms cleaned at Sonesta Es Suites Ann Arbor?
Yes, Sonesta Es Suites Ann Arbor offers laundry service.
Does Sonesta Es Suites Ann Arbor have internet?
Yes, high speed internet is available throughout Sonesta Es Suites Ann Arbor.
Are there restaurants near Sonesta Es Suites Ann Arbor?
You can visit Wendy’s and Los Amigos Restaurant & Cantina near Sonesta Es Suites Ann Arbor.
How much does it cost to stay at Sonesta Es Suites Ann Arbor?
A room in Sonesta Es Suites Ann Arbor costs from $149.
What rooms are available at Sonesta Es Suites Ann Arbor?
Sonesta Es Suites Ann Arbor offers King Studio, Two-Bedroom Suite and Deluxe King Suite.
Is there any public transportation near Sonesta Es Suites Ann Arbor?
Yes, there is bus stop #6, 36 400 meters from Sonesta Es Suites Ann Arbor.
Address
800 Victors Way,
Ann Arbor,
Michigan,
USA,
48108,
Michigan
Show map
Important Information
Check-infrom 15:00-23:59FREECheck-outuntil 11:00FREE
Extra BedsThere are no extra beds available in a room.
Pets Pets are allowed on request.
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Transport
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Need a transfer?
You can book your transfer after you have completed your booking at the hotel.