Does anyone else out there HATE trying to find a babysitter? I abhor this task because it takes about 2o calls to find someone who is a) home and b) available. Whenever I need to find someone it is an all day process. Your first pick is generally the older teen who can handle 2 5-year-olds AND a toddler, but, who am I kidding--the older teen ALWAYS has plans. So then you go to the second tier list: the younger, but still responsible teen (by younger I mean 12-14). They, of course, already were booked by Joe and Sally down the street 2 weeks ago because Sally is always planning weeks in advance. So then you try the disinterested teen who weedles out of sitting by coming up with some excuse (unless of course, their mom is in the background saying, "Give the Millars a break-- they NEED your help").
Today, after unsuccessfully trying all the teens in our neighborhood, I started calling newly married couples. Sadly, these are my best bet these days. I am sure they just love getting that call from Camilla and reluctantly (though happily on the phone) take on my charity case. Who am I kidding? They don't really want to spend their Friday evening with my kids as a practice run for the future with their own little munchkins-- no way, they've got FAR better things to do which will also help them practice for future families :)
So, I propose to any teen out there looking for a great business to read the Babysitters Club books. These popular books from my childhood brought together about 6 willing teens who met together one hour each week, during which time moms in the neighborhood could call and guarantee actually reaching a human being.
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You know what we do? ...or DID, until our friends had their 4th AND 5th babies in April ... we took turns watching kiddos after bedtime. We would get the kiddos to bed, and one of our friends would come over around 8, and we could go out on our date. Then a couple of weeks later, we could return the favor. You get a date, the person watching the kiddos gets some quiet reading/study time ... it's a pretty good setup! Just make sure you ask someone who isn't preggo with twins!
I hear ya! I loved it when I lived sooooooooo close to my parents b/c
a) they were free & b) they got so much love & attention!!!
Oh, the good ol' days! :) We finally found a good one in the ward though! We just don't go out as much! ;)
This is why we don't get out much. And we only have 1.
I am too chicken to have anyone but family watch Thomas, so we haven't even tried the teens in our ward.
But I just had to say that when Tyson and I were the young married couple, we LOVED babysitting for other couples. And our favorite was the couple with a 5 yr. old and then a set of 2 yr old twins.
Sounds good to me...get it started just in case we come back one day. :)
It's so hard to find a good sitter!!!
If we lived closer I'd volunteer Ellexis she loves to babysit and play with kids.
I read all of 'em!
You need to start paying like $10/hr, then the babysitters will clear their schedules for you. Sad, but true. Actually tell them when you call "It'll be worth your while".
you need to move here Camilla--i have an abundance of babysitters and they are all awesome!
Good luck though! sometimes we trade off with another resident couple just to save money--if both are home we'll run the kids around together until they are worn out and then one of us will drive them back to their house and put them to bed.
Don't give up!
I do agree with Melissa, I finally found an excellent babysitter and 17 at that. Her schedule was generally free for me because she knew she could make $70/day. (when I finally secured a babysitter, I made sure and took advantage of my time off). She watched my kids until she went off to college.
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