When we moved to Chattanooga 3 years ago, I had no idea how to find a babysitter. We didn’t know a soul in the city other than the folks who hired Tim for his job. Finding a quality babysitter felt like a pretty insurmountable task, I have to admit.
But we did find a babysitter, and once she graduated from college, we found another one. I’m going to tell you the two ways I found these girls, and hopefully the information will help you out!
Career Services Classifieds
For our latest hire, I checked out the career services office for our local university. I noticed that they offered job postings for their students to browse, and allowed businesses and individuals to post opportunities free of charge. So I put together an ad with what I was looking for (expected hours, pay, ages of my kids, etc.) and I requested interested applicants to send me their resume and their available hours for the semester. Within a week I had 17 applications. What an awesome response! Because I got such a great response, I got to be very choosy, and now my kids have a VERY sweet new babysitter who just started her first year at college, which makes me hopeful that she’ll be with us for 3 or 4 years!
Sitter City
If you don’t have a local university or if they don’t offer a job placement board, you might want to try the method we used to find our first sitter. We got a membership to Sitter City (*affiliate link) and it served us really well. We were able to post a job opportunity there for potential sitters to view and apply for, and we were also able to reach out to sitters in the database who might be good matches to bring their attention to our posting. The website is very secure, and sitters in the database have to go through background checks. It was a very efficient system and it was so nice to have instant access to an entire list of people in the area who were looking for babysitting opportunities. It basically made an impossible task become not hard at all!
Right now Sitter City is offering 30% off its 3 month membership (I think a 3 month membership is a great choice, as it will give you plenty of time to find your perfect sitter). The 3 month plan is $49, but with the 30% off coupon, it is just $34.30. That’s about what I pay for a 3 hour babysitting session at my house…TOTALLY worth it to find the very best person for the job!
So those are the two ways I have successfully found babysitters. How did you find your babysitters?
photo credit: Ioannis Karydis via photopin cc
Just wanted to start by saying I love your blog! secondly, I am signed up as a babysitter on Sitter City (and Care.com) and neither require us as a sitter to have a background check ran. It offers it to us as an $85 option, but not required at all. My advice: find a sitter that has had a recent job that required one. I was a school photographer before starting to babysit and I was required to have a background check to work in the schools. I offer any interested families to take a look at it and it saves us both money! I also have a list of references (professional and other families I sit for) that I offer to families who are interviewing me so they can get a feel for what I’m like as a sitter. It’s a great tool for parents to speak privately with past employers, just as they would if I were being interviewed at a professional company.
THANK YOU, Sydney, for providing this perspective. I really appreciate it as someone who uses Sitter City to learn that the background check is optional. Love your advice, too! 🙂
Great suggestions. Luckily I have a lot of family help, but these are great tips for co-workers new to town!
I find my sitters on Sittercity! I found my amazing nanny there. She moved on to an office job and I moved on to staying at home, but we are still friends – she stopped by today!