February 2013 Moms
brachysira
member
Options
Am I using care.com wrong?
brachysira
member
When M was 4 months old, I was teaching a couple summer courses and hired a baby-sitter on care.com. Someone DH knew had interviewed her and she was their 2nd choice for a full time nanny but they hired a gym teacher for their athletic kids instead. I think we exchanged a few messages and she said she wanted to meet in public, so I brought the baby and we had coffee. She worked out great and got a job teaching 2nd grade so left us at the end of the summer. I identified a couple other people and just asked them to come over to interview. I would have them talk to me, play with M while I worked in another room for an hour, and then pay them for the hour. This worked, and I felt like I got a handle on how they interacted with M. We had a great college student for a year and then she graduated.
Now I am 31 weeks pregnant and I can barely move, and really need some help. I send out a message to a new student every few days and have been doing this since the beginning of the summer. In my initial email I explain M's age, what I need, etc. The people always reply right away and say, call me if you would like. I email back and ask if they would like to interview at our house or at a coffeeshop and suggest a few times that would work for us. I rarely hear back. If I do hear back, the person will come and accept the job and then is kind of flaky or just seems uninterested after sitting for us a few times. I can understand the latter case--M is a handful, I'm around sometimes (which can be uncomfortable), our house is messy, etc. But why does no one even want to meet up to interview? I guess I can call people if they expect that, but it's just really hard to do with M being all phone obsessed and I don't feel I get anything from it. What am I doing wrong?
This discussion has been closed.
Re: Am I using care.com wrong?
Do you have any sitting services in your area? They have reliable standards, and if it's only a few hours a week the increased cost is worth it for the reliability.
Alternatively, do you know any moms of school-age kids who don't work outside the home and might like to make a little extra once school starts back? They are unlikely to advertise but very likely to be better help than your average college kid. If you have friends with older kids ask if anyone they know might fit the bill.
Good luck!
Need tips for surviving cat allergies? Check out my bio!