finding babysitters, help!

Alright ladies. Help! I'm really burnt out & family lives far away. I'm thinking it's time to look for some good babysitters, mothers helpers, etc.
My dh is a controling sob lately & doesn't trust anyone but family taking care
of our boys. He is so ready to install nannycams, etc. He's a nut about safety.
These are going to be daddyboys, not mamasboys the way he is going!!!


Anyways, how do you find good reliable help that isn't a small fortune?
I really don't have time to put up flyers and pray someone actually good applies.

oh, I'm coming from a total work-aholic career driven life, so I know No One in the area.
The ladies in my twins group live in a different county than me. (and the ones close by have grown up kids now)

At what point did you start using non-family babysitters?

 

I can relate; I used to be a workaholic before the boys were born, and I STILL know very few people in my neighborhood.

We have a nanny who comes to our house and watches/teaches the boys. We've done this since before I went back to work from maternity leave at 5 weeks. This is actually our third nanny; 1 was habitually late so we let her go, the 2nd we loved but she went back to nursing school, and the 3rd one ended up being the best of the lot.

Anyway, I put ads out on Sittercity.com and Care.com, weeded through applications, then did phone interviews. We narrowed this down to the best 3-4 candidates and brought them in for face-to-face interviews where they could meet the boys.

Some people do choose to have nanny-cams and monitoring. We don't do this, but we did take time off the first week or so that a new nanny started so we could observe and assist. We also call/text during the day for updates, come home early occasionally, and have the grandparents stop by when they can. The boys are extremely happy (well, as happy as they can be when cutting new teeth ), healthy, and are developing well so I'm pretty confident she's doing a good job.

This may be a little different than your situation, but I hope it helps. I think if you're looking for a mother's helper (who will be there only when you are there) you can get a teenager for a pretty low price. A babysitter would probably go for more, and a true "nanny" more than a babysitter. So the price really depends on your needs.

Good luck!

 

I used Care.com (sitter.com is another type of site) to find our sitters. The first one I hired from there was a college student and showed up late/didn't show and called off so we let her go. We paid her $8/hour. The second one is fantastic and has been with us since last June. I work from home FT so I am here when she is (although now I leave her alone with them from time to time and she has watched them in the evening when we go out as well). She works for us 8 hours/week and we pay $10/hour.

We did background checks and checked references.

HTH!

 

Can your DH ask around at work? I need some sort of personal reference at least until my kids can talk.

 

Hi,
If you trust their judgement, I would check with the twin moms in your area. Even if they have grown kids, they may have some good ideas for you. We don't have family in the area. I hired a babysitter when they were 3 months old. She is a young woman I met at tennis. She didn't have child care experience, but I really like her and trust her as a person. When they were really little, she just was a mother's helper. After a while, we left them alone with her to go out. It's been great. My preference is to go with someone through a personal connection.

 

i just started leaving the kids with a sitter, it took me a long time to get comfortable with the idea of leaving them with someone other than family... but anywho.. i asked my neighbor's babysitter if she was looking for another family to sit for, unfortunately she wasn't but she is the manager of the baby lab at texas a&m and gave me a bunch of names of girls in her department that like to babysit. i found a great young lady from her recommendations and the twins love her and i feel comfortable leaving the babies with her because she is trained in cpr and had a background check done inorder to work in the baby lab...

i guess my point is, if you see other sitters out with kids, ask them if they are looking for more work or if they know anyone that they could refer.

 

The other fellow MoMs in our "local" chapter mentioned to me that I should call area guidance councelors at the area highschools. Also to put up teardown papers. and to check the local community college.
That all seems like alot of work on my part. And sorta desperate. Plus my info then is out there in public.
I forwarded the info about sitter.com to my dh to see if he will "approve" it.

Until more help arrives... I'm it!

 

What the heck is a baby lab - I am dying of curiosity! :huh:

 

Any people from church?
Any responsible teen-agers in your neighborhood?
Any friends you can get referrals from?

Another option we have used is employees from our daycare center. They know our kids, they've had background checks to be employed there, they know the importance of good behavior, and most importantly, they know how to handle multiple kids who are the same age.

 

Thank you SOO much for posting this!

 

We found our in-home sitter through word of mouth. She is registered with the state of Texas as well. So we feel very comfortable with her. She rocks.

For the weekends or week nights, we use either family or 2 people referred to us by good friends. One is my BFF's sister and the other is a 17 year old daughter of my friend. I trust both of them very much. Luckily we live within 10 miles of all of our immediate family. I'm not sure how we would exist without them so close. I don't know how you ladies without family near do it.

 

[quote name='Shelly's twins' date='14 January 2010 - 11:17 AM' timestamp='1263489466' post='1554810']
What the heck is a baby lab - I am dying of curiosity!
[/quote]


LOL!! i guess it does sound kinda funny... it is a lab in the developmental psych department that does behavioral experiments on babies/toddlers. some of the things they do sound pretty cool.

 

I found my mothers helper and eventually my nanny through Care.com too. GL!!

 

Thank you for the clarification

 

This article on finding babysitters is on BabyCenter.com:

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