Because adopted children usually arrive on the scene without much advance notice, parents who work outside the home (particularly single parents) must scramble to find childcare.
It’s not uncommon for an adoptive parent to spend most of his or her adoption leave madly searching for a nanny, daycare, or pre-school.
Enter speed babysitting. You’ve heard of speed dating, in which singles gather at a café or pub and chat for five minutes with a bunch of other singles. Apply that concept to finding a babysitter.
Sitter Socials, a California-based program, is one of a few services around the country that matches parents with available babysitters. Clients (aka, parents in need of a sitter) pay $50 to attend a neighborhood speed meeting (okay, “speed meeting” sounds vaguely illegal, but you get my drift). Parents spend three minutes apiece interviewing about a dozen potential babysitters.
In addition, clients receive a book that contains profiles, references, and contact info for local babysitters (that, alone, would be worth 50 bucks!).
Sitter Socials also offer snacks and door prizes. After the initial speed interviews, there’s time for parents and sitters to negotiate deals.
It isn’t a perfect system, I suppose, but nothing in the I-need-childcare-right-now world is. I’m not sure whether speed babysitting applies to all-day care, or is just for parents in need of a night out. Either way, it might be worth looking into.
What do you think, readers? Have you tried speed babysitting? Did it work for you?
Source:
“Speed baby-sitting follows quickie dating,” by John Rogers, Associated Press, KnoxNews.com