Do you use non-family babysitters?

DH brought up yesterday that we get a free membership to Sitter City. He thinks it would be nice for us to be able to go out for a night- maybe not right now, but if the coming months.

I'm just not so sure how many people can handle a 2 year old and two infants- especially with the bedtime routine. We have a well choreographed routine and it takes two of us to do all the jobs (washing, diapering, bottles, books, burping).

I would love to do something simple like go to the Outback and to a movie, but I don't think I would be able to enjoy myself because I'd be worrying about my girls.

We didn't really use babysitters with my oldest. I babysat as a teen, and everything turned out fine, but it's different now that it's my own, KWIM?

What do you do?

 

I rely on friends and family for sitting. Even with that I arrange it for the boys to be sleeping a majority of the time. Do your twins go to bed before 7? It would be easy for a sitter to put the 2 yr old to bed even if they need to feed the twins later in the night. If it's free, I'd say try it for at least dinner. You can always leave that early if you need to.

 

I have never had the luxury of a family member willing or capable of watching of my kids, so I have always relied on sitters. What I have always done is bring a new sitter over to be with me and the kids for a trial run while I am there. That way she learns our routine and I can see how she interacts with the children. I will do this as many times as it takes for me to feel comfortable with a sitter. I have used sitter city and I think it's a great service. We actually used them to find one of our full-time nannies. They do have a background check option, which is nice. Most of our sitters I have found through other sitters. They all know lots of people and are mostly all college students. I would not leave my kids with anyone younger than college-age, but that is just me.

Often we will go out after the twins are in bed and the sitter only has to be playing with our 5 year old until bed time. Once the kids get used to a particular sitter, they don't mind being put to bed by them. Their routine may vary from what we do when we are home, but it doesn't seem to bother them at all. All kids act differently with people other than Mom and Dad. Sometimes it is good to start with going out after their bed time,but you have to warn the kids and they should meet their sitter days before they actually come stay with them. A stranger coming to comfort them in the night is scary!

You do need to get out and enjoy yourselves, you really do. I am always amazed when people say they have never used sitters. I think it's great when people actually have family and friends that will help out. We never will, unfortunately.Sitters are not that bad, but it is hard to leave your babies with someone when you have never done it before! Good luck with your search!

Kelly

 

I have only ever had my parents, family, or BF babysit my girls. But if I didn't have family near by I would definitely hire a babysitter!

I babysit a little boy during the week and his mom found me on sitter city.

 

Up until a year ago we didn't really need to hire someone b/c we relied on family so much. But, we decided we were relying on them *too* much, so we started hiring a neighbor girl - she is 16. She does a fabulous job, comes from a big family, and the kids love her.

The first time she watched them we had her come over an hour early (we paid her for the whole time). That way she could interact with the kids and ask us questions and we could kinda get to see how she dealt with things.

 

i'm totally in your situation. we'd like to go out but we'd have to hire a sitter and that makes us nervous. we're afraid it would be too overwhelming for a single sitter. we've looked into sitter city but we've been too nervous about hiring a sitter that we haven't actually done it yet.

we have absolutely no family here and i've been reluctant to let friends babysit because i feel like they don't know how much work it is. so since the boys were born we basically have had 2 date nights, when MIL was in town visiting. otherwise we try to take an afternoon off of work and go out during normal daycare hours. it's definitely getting to a point where we're desperate for an occasional night out. we may have to make a decision here soon and finally contact sitter city.

 

We had a great sitter for the summer (who just got a 1st grade teaching job). For date nights, we usually would put the kids to bed ourselves and she would come after, but our two have a very early bedtime (by 6, usually), so that works well.

I just joined SitterCity and it seems like there's a lot of qualified people. I'll probably have one come by to spend an afternoon, just so she gets a feel for the routine. I know it's harf to turn your little ones over to someone new, but my guess is that you'll be able to find someone who can do it!