Need a Sitter for This Weekend!? Any Suggestions Moms?? THANKS!!

If you are not going to take the time to call and interview, you are not going
to get a sitter. Very simple.

I would use a sitting service because they often are able to give you a variety of sitters to choose from. I happen to agree with some of the other moms and comments below too, especially about babymatcher. Hands down they are number one in providing sitters. Second is nannies to go in my opinion. Goodluck to you.

Hey B.,

I personally was just in the same situation as you not too long.

I was recommened of the matchmaking sitting service called BabyMatcher.

I use to use the other ones sitter city and care, but found those ot be overpriced and I had to do all the work to find a good sitter that mostly didnt exist you know ha!

I am a busy career driven mom as well, and thats why I used BabyMatcher they like do the work for you and give you like your top 5 awesome sitters just for you! So I think PERFECt for your situation.

Hope that helps some B., good luck!!

E.

You should double check all their references. Also make sure to ask for at least 2 references. If they are unable to give you that, then you might want to reconsider hiring them for your kids. I am a sitter myself, and have been for over 5 years now. Im also a new proud mommy of a 8 month old babygirl. Due to hard times, as i am sure many of you know, I stay at home with my baby and now am watching another child at my home as well. I was out of work for almost a year, really hard you can imagine.

I used for free babymatcher. not sure if B. you have heard of it but definitely try it out, I am a good qualified for real sitter on there. There are other women on there too like me. Hope this helps you and god bless.

*thinly veiled attempt at self promotion methinks*

B.,

You gotta get the references I cannot emphasize that enough. The most important thing in my book. I have had many sitters over the last 2 years since my son was born. I tried using friends of friends but honestly didn't like to mix buisness with friendships, it just turned out sour in the end sadly.

So my next option was the usually sittercity route. That was a diaster as well. Customer service there was horrible, and rude too. Care.com I was on at the same time and they were not getting me any good qulaity sitters. Big disappointment.

Finally, found a newer but I find to be a much better qualitied site, babymatcher for parents especially because it is a match making service. I find them to be customer friendly and thats how I have Mandy, our sitter for the past 6 months and counthing, thank god!

Source: from my own personal experience of 2 yrs

Word of mouth is great. Check out the local highschool guidance councilor she may be able to suggest someone. I wanted to note that sitter city is not a rip off and there are many reliable people on the site. If you interview and call references you will find the right person. and while it may be time consuming you really need to be sure. I am a nanny and I can tell you right now I would never take a job from someone who didn't have the time to interview with me. If the parent didn't care enough to interview and make sure that "her children's" needs would be met why would I think that mine would be? just my opinion but its not a good idea to take someone elses word without doing your own interviews. Doesn't matter how busy you are your children are more important than any busy work.

Do your homework well for each sitter you meet and interview.

I just had to let go my babysitter two days ago because she constantly was running late and not showing up. Enough was enough. I got a weird feeling in the pit of my stomach that she wasnt who said said she was. I had checked out her bacground check on care.com thing, but turned out her background was never truly checked by them. I was very upset with care.com and fired her right away. I guess it all makes sense looking back her unreliability and weird behavior. HUGE DISASTER!! :(

Thanks Belinda for the suggestion below, will check it out :)

So True Patty, I agree with that 100 percent.

B., you gotta take time out of your busy day to do the research.

Lexi, to answer your question, its a sitter service online. Like my girlfriend Jan, told me all giddy, the new match.com for parents and sitters. Its a useful tool to use I think.

Also, always check references too!!

I used sittercity service.

But I myself have had no such look finding a sitter for my family. Not kidding some of those girls who I met up with seem not at all into kids.

Whats this Babymatcher all about I see below??

Dont use care.com they are a joke. They kept charging me monthly after I saw my bank statments even though I cancelled my membership awhile ago.

Interviews and background checks are a must now a days!

I agree below with the others, as far a a reputable babysitting service, go with Babymatcher. Ive used it for a few months now, love it. They are not overpriced either. Hope it helps.

I always have done it the old school way. Using word of mouth. It has worked for me pretty well in the pass. I just was curious of all this talk below about the match making babymatcher and must say its such a cute lookin site. Im thinking of joining it. I am in need of a current date night only sitter asap too.

Mom here out in Washington.

Cant agree more with everyone dont use sittercity, care. Companies care just for profit not for their customers I found out last week. B. gotta have patience and really follow up on your babysitter's history and past jobs. I am weary of online services since sittercity, but early last week coming across the new sittinger service that has caused much talk among moms, at least in my inner circle of friends in our town. Babymatcher is the way to go in my book. All I hear is positive real reviews on them. Goodluck out there :)

I found my current nanny ( live out) when I gave sittercity a try. Boy was I mistaken ladies.

I am right now looking up other angencies to find a replacemnt for her asap. My husband and I are now aware she has been stealing from us. Thanks for the tipcs below guys. I will check out that Baby matcher service.

Warning for you B., you can never be toocareful

I cant believe how many us moms think alike. I am never using those sitter city and care,com again. Complete rip off in my opinion and you have to use your own time doing double the searching for already unqualified sitters. I can rant about them forever!
Thanks for the tip below about a good sounding new sitting service babymatcher. Maybe there is hope yet online!

Your children are the most precious things in your life so please take the time to make sure whoever you hire to care for them is truly someone that will be good with them.

Check with any colleges in the area. A lot of times there are students working on degrees in child development that you can get to sit for you. Another good place to look is local churches - lots of them have a bulletin boards with responsible teens advertising their services. We have a couple of business in town that provide last minute sitters and although I've never used them I hear positive things about them and one good thing is that they have to be screened by their employers.

There's also Sittercity.com, Care.com, Babymatcher.com, Bocanannies.com and Greataupair.com.

If you don't want to worry about background checks and stuff I'd hire a reliable nanny service. There is no way I'd hire someone I don't know without a background check, interviews and references and that all takes time. Word of mouth works well too but you're short on time.

Talk to fellow Mom's who work outside the home and have their kids in daycare. Some of the daycare teachers babysit on the side and would appreciate the referal. If you talk to one of those Moms they may be able to give you the teacher's name and you can call.

LOL. I love how this convo turns into sittercity bashing. But honestly it is about time moms talk about this. I have paid them countless times for one year, good money I might add, and for really nuttin. To this day I have not found the one for my family. I spent days at times writing to the sitters profiles but barely respond or the ones who do are not fit to watch my kids. Depressing I know.

Im all for favor for other suggestions. Im sire B. is too. So far I am liking and methinking I might give this babymatcher site a good try.

Will let you guys know what I think of it

lots of care, C.

What a small world!

Like Erica replied below, I own my own salon in Tempe Arizona, but of course needed a nanny for my young baby girl. I found BabyMatcher, using google, what else.

Highly recommend it too. Try it and see it for yourself. It is a real time and life saver for getting your "good" sitter you need.

Talk to the people you work with. Anyone have a daughter or granddaughter that babysits? Our best sitters have come from word of mouth by people I work with or kids of the people my mom works with. You know the people you work with fairly well and you kind of know what opinions to trust and the ones to completely disregard. When you find a good one, pay them well, they will WANT to keep coming back! And once you get a good one, see if they can offer a back up friend to call if they are ever busy. Have the person come over for 30 mins and see how they do with your kids before hand.

Thumbs up for taking your time to find the right sitter as always!!