We need a babysitter.

[toratoratori]

The time has come. We desperately need to hire a babysitter (or a couple of babysitters) so we can leave the house without C, or go to work on days when she's sick.


But I'm terrified. How the hell do you find strangers with whom you're willing to trust your child's life? Where should I be looking? What should I be asking?

[dana86]

I have no clue but I am going to keep a watch of this post. My dad is the only person local for us and even he can only watch the girls in short spans. Which means we have never gone out since having both girls, and only went out once after having M. We need someone but I am so paranoid and terrified of a stranger coming in that I just don't know how to go about it.

[jamer]

We just tried this for the first time last month. First sitter was not great. She did bare minimum and won't be used again. Used one last week and she's coming back next week! We have a Facebook mom group for our community and got names from that. First time we did an early dinner out so wouldn't have to deal with bed times. Second time was only 2 hours again. Do you know people in area you could ask and get referrals for? Care.com? It's hard to trust non family with kids (and even some family!) for me. But it was necessary as my parents live an hour away.

[toratoratori]

Jun 5, 2015 14:00:29 GMT -5 jamer said:

We just tried this for the first time last month. First sitter was not great. She did bare minimum and won't be used again. Used one last week and she's coming back next week! We have a Facebook mom group for our community and got names from that. First time we did an early dinner out so wouldn't have to deal with bed times. Second time was only 2 hours again. Do you know people in area you could ask and get referrals for? Care.com? It's hard to trust non family with kids (and even some family!) for me. But it was necessary as my parents live an hour away.

Most of my friends with kids live in North Seattle or have family babysit for them, so no one is really local. I guess I could join a Facebook group but since everyone in it would basically be a stranger, I don't know that I could trust their recommendations. I may have to go the Care.com route

[karebear219]

I agree with Care.com. I have a few nanny/school teacher friends and they all worked through care.com. Like LL said you just have to do your research. Or if you can get recommendations from friends in your area or through work that could help too. GL!

[jamer]

Jun 5, 2015 15:08:05 GMT -5 toratoratori said:

Jun 5, 2015 14:00:29 GMT -5 jamer said:

We just tried this for the first time last month. First sitter was not great. She did bare minimum and won't be used again. Used one last week and she's coming back next week! We have a Facebook mom group for our community and got names from that. First time we did an early dinner out so wouldn't have to deal with bed times. Second time was only 2 hours again. Do you know people in area you could ask and get referrals for? Care.com? It's hard to trust non family with kids (and even some family!) for me. But it was necessary as my parents live an hour away.

Most of my friends with kids live in North Seattle or have family babysit for them, so no one is really local. I guess I could join a Facebook group but since everyone in it would basically be a stranger, I don't know that I could trust their recommendations. I may have to go the Care.com route

Yeah a random Facebook group won't help. Ours is just neighborhood moms who meet up so not strangers. The last girl is young and her mom brought her and came in to for awhile so that made me feel better it's tough!!

[georgeharrison]

Is C in daycare? Can you ask the teachers there if they know anyone? Maybe they know of another parent that is looking for some extra money or maybe the know of a babysitter that a lot of the families use or maybe THEY themselves are looking for a little extra and would do it.

[alias]

Is she not in daycare at all? I'm lucky to have lots of family, but if I needed someone else I would ask one of his teachers from day care. That's what a lot of my friends do.

[toratoratori]

Jun 5, 2015 15:14:24 GMT -5 @lauralynne said:

remind me what area? My daughter is available but we are north end - you're south-ish if I remember right...

Honestly we have several friends who have found sitters they found either on Craigslist (no - really!) or Care.com. You just have to do the legwork. You talk to them - a lot. You check out their references. you listen to your gut. You do an actual paid for background check (even if you go through Care.com who does a background check for you - do an independent one as well). I know it's hard, I totally get it. But you don't have to leave them totally alone at first. Have them spend time with C with you there. At a park where you can watch from a distance. Or while you're home - be honest that you're nervous - if that sends them running, you didn't want them in the first place.

it's like dating - You will probably weed through a lot of duds. But eventually you'll find a Princess or two. And it'll be awesome.

This is good advice, thanks!

Yeah, we're in Tukwila, so it's a bit of a drive, but if she's willing to do it, I'd be happy to meet her It's about 25 minutes from our house to Lake City Way without traffic.

[toratoratori]

Jun 5, 2015 18:21:39 GMT -5 georgeharrison said:

Is C in daycare? Can you ask the teachers there if they know anyone? Maybe they know of another parent that is looking for some extra money or maybe the know of a babysitter that a lot of the families use or maybe THEY themselves are looking for a little extra and would do it.

cc alias

A couple of the families in our class use one of our daycare teachers, but she doesn't have a driver's license so she can't get to us. (All the other families are in North Seattle and she can get there by bus.)

We have a Facebook group for the class, though - I can ask if anyone has used anyone else!

[7costanza]

I'm sure its pricy, but we have used homewatch caregivers and been very happy. My employer subsidizes the care so I have no idea how much it actually costs. A friend has used Annie's nannies but I believe she said they're pretty expensive. Also, if baby is mildly sick Virginia Mason (i think?) has a daycare center you can send her to. I haven't used it but remember seeing the website for it at some point.

[theoriginalbean]

I know this is an older post, but I'll weigh in, anyway. We had a month membership on care.com, looking for daytime care in our own home while we work in the mornings. It was really great, we found a bunch of people, interviewed a few, and really like the girl we settled on (she's not available in June, unfortunately, and the second one isn't working out as well). We also ruled out a few for logistical reasons, but are definitely keeping them in our file for evening/weekend date nights. I had never used it before, since we had the kids in a center and used sitters from there, but it was well worth the $$.

[toratoratori]

I talked my hubs into letting me get a 3 month subscription to Care.com, so I've been poking around on there and have gotten a lot of responses. Fingers crossed that one (or several) of them works out!

[picksthemusic]

Another place (again, I know it's old) would be to look on college websites with nursing programs - they usually advertise for sitters/nannies especially during the summer.