Babysitters...are there less these days?

[kschick96]

God bless all of you who do without but that is not an option for me. I just can't not have a babysitter. And using family is not an option for us either. The closest (distance wise) relative is a 2 hour bus ride and then a 45 minute car ride. The next closest is a 12 hour car ride away. So, yeah, that is not happening. At least what I am seeing here is consistent but it is still frustrating. We had the best babysitter ever where we used to live and I paid her $8 an hour. I desperately need to find a sitter!!!

I am in the same boat. The closet family member lives over 2 hours away-so family is out. One idea is, if you have a college or community college in town, would be to contact their early childhood education instructor andask for some names. Also, I know they offer (or atleast used to) offer a class in HS called parenting, that taught child care skills-maybe contact the instructor and see if they have anyone.

If you are in a bigger area you could use an online site like care.com, or sittercity.com. You have to pay, but it may be worth it. Keep us posted!

[anaj06]

We have never used anyone but family, my husband just doesn't trust our kids with anyone else. We have forgone many activities because of the limited babysitting pool. I want to know my kids are safe though!

[taylordvd]

I am in the same boat. The closet family member lives over 2 hours away-so family is out. One idea is, if you have a college or community college in town, would be to contact their early childhood education instructor andask for some names. Also, I know they offer (or atleast used to) offer a class in HS called parenting, that taught child care skills-maybe contact the instructor and see if they have anyone.

If you are in a bigger area you could use an online site like care.com, or sittercity.com. You have to pay, but it may be worth it. Keep us posted!

I am in a larger area and fairly close to a University. I am going to try to do some networking in the next week or two but if that ends in a big flop then I will consider the websites you recommended. Tonight is the parent meeting at my son's new preschool. I am going to force myself to be outgoing tonight and try to ask every parent there who their babysitter is. And maybe it would be worthwhile trying to contact the education department at the University to see if there is a list somewhere.

[MrsPinecone]

There are fewer sitters.

Many teenagers have 'real' jobs or participate in so many activities that there just isn't time. They want some friend time on the usual sitting nights.

Also, parents today just don't trust the average teenager to be competent enough to watch kids for a couple of hours. Or their parents don't want them in a stranger's house alone.

The sitters that you can find are expensive and honestly, if a sitter is going to add $50-75 to the cost of a night out, we just can't afford it.

[CRW]

Do you have a college nearby? If so you might try putting a sign up on some of the bulletin boards there or seeing if you can put an add up with the career services office. College students will generally have more availability then high school students since they generally only have a few hours of classes a day plus they're generally more responsible.

If you have any friends with kids in daycare you could ask them to check with the daycare providers to see if any of them babysit after hours. A lot of the classroom assistants are willing to babysit after hours and don't charge much (they usually make pretty close to minimum wage at their jobs).

If you're part of a mom's group you could also see if any of the other mom's would be willing to swap babysitting hours and/or get paid for babysitting.

[SFShopper]

Are you able to get some referrals from people @ your local church? They might know some teens and/or young adults that they believe are reliable and good.