Last week’s post “When Should Our Children Stay Home Alone?” triggered quite a response. While it depends on the child’s level of maturity and responsibility, most of you agreed that twelve is about the age when we feel comfortable leaving them at home.
So, that brings me to the next question: What does this mean for our babysitting budget?
If we can afford $40-80 per week for the occasional time away from the kids, that’s great. But, what if we can’t? We could choose to always be home with the kids, or bring them with us when we go out, but is there another option that we could feel comfortable with?
I was thinking about this when Kareen, the creator of HiveMoms.com told me about her website which brings neighborhood moms together for playdates and babysitting co-ops. I expressed some doubt about a babysitting co-op: “How would I know to trust the other moms? They may live close to me, but that doesn’t mean we share the same values or that we care for our children the same way.”
But, as Kareen explained, HiveMoms is not about befriending strangers and immediately putting our kids in their care. In fact, you could start a private co-op with moms you already know and trust – the site just makes it easy to keep track of the points you exchange when you trade babysitting!
I’m still wondering if I should give this a shot. Maybe I’ll just join a few playdates that are posted on the site, and then see how it goes. Is anyone game to join me for a peek?
About Mom Spark
Honestly, I think it’s a great idea. I’ve done co-ops in other cities (LA, Atlanta) and they’ve worked great. My daughter is 9, and I’m at that awkward point where I know she’s independent and rarely has a hard time alone…but I don’t feel comfortable leaving her for too long. I don’t have much of a babysitting budget, so I try to swap when possible.
Also, now that I’ve been unemployed for a while, I actually have really enjoyed watching my neighbors/friends kids for a few hours if they have an appointment or errands to run. Or if the kids go down early and the couple wants me to be in house while they run and get ice cream.
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I found that it was best to work out trades with other Moms that I had values in common with. We put together a group of 3 Mom and we each took all three children one morning a week (MWF) for a few hours. We did this for a couple of years until the children went to kindergarten. This was a great way for the boys to build social skills and give the Moms 2 mornings a week to focus work child-free.
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I do sitting swaps with a few friends… our kids are very close and as parents we’re like-minded. We trade sitting evenings — e.g., I’ll babysit her kids while my husband stays home with our daughter; on another day, she’ll babysit my daughter while her husband stays home with the kids. Actually, we’ve tweaked it a bit so that a play date occurs at the home of whoever is doing the sitting and then the mom takes the kids home and puts them to bed. It works beautifully — the kids get a playdate, and the parents get a night out without having to worry about babysitting expenses.
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Mom Spark Reply:
March 24th, 2010 at 12:52 pm
@Boston Mamas, I love all of those ideas! Right now, we are paying a babysitter to watch our kids, and it get VERY pricey and almost make going out a little stressful. I plan on going over these ideas with my friends and putting this into action! Thank you for sharing, it was very helpful.
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Here are a couple posts I wrote on the idea, based off the book Smart Mom’s Baby-sitting Co-op (the only one our library had, lol):
http://www.hobomama.com/2009/10/reaching-out-and-saying-yes-creating.html
http://www.hobomama.com/2009/10/ap-principle-6-book-review-of-smart.html
We’ve started our co-op with some friends from church and are keeping it low-key, managed through a Google Group. We definitely don’t all parent the same way, but I think as long as it’s safe and there are some common standards, it’s fine for kids to experience other styles for a few hours here and there. I find when babysitting that the babysitters tend to be indulgent and playmate-y, which I think works well for a short span, anyway, don’t you? It’s like a little play break for everybody concerned (even the parents doing the leaving — ha ha!). Our 2-year-old thinks it’s great that he has friends come over more often (at all) now. And we would never go out if we had to pay the going babysitting rates. We’re just too dang cheap.
Feel free to email if you have specific questions. I’m not an expert by any means, but I’ll share what I can.
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we don’t go out once a week, its more like once a month, and then I do plenty of mno’s. Here is my thing on the babysitting co-ops, (my local mom’s club chapter has one)….i would rather pay someone than have to return the babysitting favor. I know that sounds terrible but true. The other thing is moms that have their own kids generally want to watch your child in their home not yours…..again a convenience I am willing to pay for. When hubby and I go out we like to have a few drinks and I am not comfortable picking my kid after a few drinks. I also hate to stay out late when he is at someone elses home, whereas my 20 something year old sitter is here puts him to bed in his own bed and we don’t have to wake him up to bring him home. We have also done overnight swaps with friends, which is cool…but I always have to warn them my kid is a 6AM waker…and their kids go to bed later so its always pretty wild.
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