Monday, July 9, 2012

Finding a Trusted Caretaker


I’ve alternated between being a stay at home mom and a working mom throughout different stages of my son’s life.  For the first five year of his life I was mostly home, working in a restaurant on the weekend nights so I could be home with him the rest of the week.  Then I was a preschool teacher from his kindergarten year until he was about ten years old.  Those hours were perfect because I would work while he was at school and get out right as he got off the bus, if I had to work while he was off of school he could just come to work with me.  Then I was a stay at home mom for two years before returning to work full time this past October.   Although I absolutely love my job, finding care has been very stressful.  I’ve been pretty lucky so far because my son played on his middle school soccer and then basketball team and would have practices and games after school most of the time HOWEVER the days he didn’t have practice I would almost have a nervous breakdown trying to find someone to get him after school.  Plus he’s decided he doesn’t want o play baseball anymore so I now have zero after school care for him.  He is old enough to stay at home sometimes but I really don’t think he’s ready to be home alone after school for three hours every day.  Plus summer is coming up and I have no idea what I’m going to do with him for 60 hours a week (fulltime job plus commute time).  I have literally been PRAYING for an answer. 
Then I lucked out and came across care.com which is basically a website that brings babysitters and parents together.  There are lists of babysitters and nannies so you can browse and look who you think would be right for you.  The part I loved is that you can see background checks as well as recommendations from other parents.  You can also see pictures, ages, experience, education, and hourly pay as well as a little area where they can tell about themselves.  I liked that because I know the mother of a quiet baby girl would be looking for something totally different than a mom like me who is looking for someone to care for her wild sporty older boy.
A few other benefits include being able to see which days and times each babysitter is available, which extra duties they are willing to offer such as light housekeeping, meal preparation, errands, grocery shopping, travel, crafts, swimming supervision, and carpooling.  They also include if they are trained in first aid, CPR, CRN, Doula, Special Needs Care, and Trustline Certified.
I’m going to be reviewing these profiles to find someone parttime now so that my son will be used to his caregiver by the time summer rolls around and they have to spend more time together.  I may even find someone he likes enough to spend a Friday night with so that I can have a date night!  I’ll let you know how it goes!







If you want to check it out for yourself just enter your zip code above to start searching!

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