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December 2010 Moms
sroszc
member
Care.com users... (or others who've used a babysitter)
sroszc
member
I'm checking out care.com for a babysitter, so far we've only used my mom, sister and mother-in-law. Unfortunately my mom is recovering from a mastectomy and will be starting chemo soon 
so she isn't really an option and my sister is only available once in a while since she works so much. I've come to realize that we need to be able to get out of the house after Carson's 7pm bedtime. I think it's so important to spend some alone time with DH and that just really isn't happening.
So...if you've used care.com to find a babysitter (or another site or method), are you interviewing the potential candidates? Spending a day with them and LO together to see if you feel comfortable? What questions are you asking them? I really don't know where to start! I want someone younger (I think they will be more open to my way of doing things).
Any advice?
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Re: Care.com users... (or others who've used a babysitter)
Thanks Mands! I've started to mark 'favorites' that I want to go back and contact. I like that you have them over a couple of times before actually leaving them alone with LO. Makes sense.
I just really need a date night!
Thank you! It's all happened so fast - she was diagnosed in May and had her surgery June 13th. She has incredible faith and has been really strong making it much easier for the rest of us to follow suit.
I also wanted to say I'm sorry about your mom.
Best wishes to her.
As for the question, we did use care.com and found a great sitter. We found 3-4 people that we emailed, and of the ones who emailed back, I interviewed 2 of them. Neither wanted to meet at our house, as they don't know me either so they wanted to meet in public places, which was fine. I brought G and was careful to see how they interacted with him. I asked a lot of questions about their experience, background, etc.
The girl we ended up going with - I just loved her personality. She was bright and bubbly and just super sweet. She talked to G and I could just tell she loved babies. She's 27 and works full time, just wanted to do some sitting in the evenings. We've used her twice - once for dinner, once for dinner & a movie, and she was great. G loved her.
I would totally recommend care.com, I just think you kinda have to go with the information they give you as well as your gut. The first girl I talked to didn't seem all that interested in G, and her first questions were about money. I didn't end up using her.
We used sittercity.com, and we thought we had found a wonderful babysitter! She had AWESOME recommendations, was great with Miles, would send us picture texts and updates throughout the work day, and kept our house tidy and clean! We were in LOVE!
And then... we found cigarette butts in the toilet, internet history that revealed she was googling our prescription meds, and she cut M's hair without asking! We were shocked that we could have gotten it so wrong! I don't want to scare you at all, but I think personal recommendations are best, and if those aren't available, then call LOTS and LOTS of references!! Even if you can get recommendations from coworkers, neighbors, church members, etc., a PERSONAL recommendation is always more settling.
Yikes! Ok, I'll be calling references for sure! We'll also continue asking around for personal recommendations. Unfortunately a lot of our friends are already using a babysitter and won't share, ha. I guess I wouldn't share either if I found a good one