Oh, it must be nice to have this kind of child care as an option: baby-sitting co-ops. As quoted by the New York Times:
A more formal twist on looking after the neighbor’s children while a parent runs errands, baby-sitting co-ops are sprouting up in cities, towns and suburbs. They allow groups of families to swap baby-sitting duties with no money involved.Â
Uhm, did someone say free? (Other than that nasty carpet cleaning you’ll have to do). It sounds like a mom’s dream. Drop off the kid at a moment’s notice! Pretend like you’re a “single person” for awhile! And it won’t cost you a dime!
Unless you have to go to work, right? Of all the child care options that I’ve read about, blogged about and talked about, this one seems the least realistic for a working parent. Could you really call your neighbor saying that you’re running an hour late and that she needs to watch junior for a little longer? And when is the working parent supposed to watch someone else’s kids? I think the last thing I’d want to do is take in another kiddie just after mine went to bed for the night after a long day of work.
Seems like this co-op thing would just end up being a lot more work for my nanny. Think she’d charge extra?
Tags: babysitting co-op, child care, day care, nanny
{ 4 comments… read them below or add one }
Found you through crazy/hip….I was reading your post and before I got to the end I thought, ugh, who would want to look after someone else’s brats, I mean kids! Now, I would certainly want someone to look after mine but I am far too hard a working single mom (read: selfish) to return the favor!
We have a co-op in my town (Boston suburb). A good friend of mine, a phd with a demanding career, is a member of the co-op, and she swears by it. It’s highly organized with an online calendar. She only
has babysitting duties on Saturday nights.
I think it’s a great idea. The downside I see is that the co-op has
30 members or so. It’s difficult enough to get my children to warm up
to one person, much less thirty different people. I think I will join
though when my kids get older.
Not that you asked, but if you have any interest in starting one in your
town, I can email you the bylaws and FAQs. Like I said, it’s very formal and organized.
My friends and I don’t call it a co-op, but we’ve all exchanged babysitting duties–planning dates both far in advance and catching each other at the last minute when something comes up.
No money gets exchanged and the kids are happy to see a familiar face.
Marketing Mommy, I like your idea. A couple of my friends and I have experimented with it, but one is moving away. We need to beef up our little co-op!