We all know it’s important to spend one-on-one time with our partner (and without the kids), but babysitting can be so expensive it might deter you from a date night till the kids are in their teens.
In big cities like Toronto, we’ve talked to parents who pay a babysitter as much as $14 to $18 per hour. If you can find a teenager simply looking to make some pocket money, you can probably pay less, but it’s not always easy to find a responsible, trustworthy 14-year-old.
But what if you could easily find high-quality, free child care?
Enter the babysitting co-operative, in which you swap babysitting with other parents you know and/or are within your established “network”. You get a babysitter for free one night, then you babysit for someone else in the network (not necessarily the same person) at a later date.
The benefits are not only free babysitting, but that you can create a network of babysitters—all parents themselves—who you know and trust. You can also limit the network to parents whose kids are around the same age, making it easier on the sitters, who understand the age and stage of the child, and gives the parents requesting a sitter some extra peace of mind.
If it sounds pretty amazing, that’s because it is. It’s free, it’s good karma, and you never feel awkward about offering to pay or taking money from a friend.
So, how do you set up a babysitting co-operative? Here are two primary options and some tips:
Online Babysitting Co-op Services
Websites like the Toronto-based SitSwap do the heavy lifting for you: they keep track of members, hours, and points earned, and have a uniform system for sending out babysitting requests (to co-op members you choose) and for accepting requests.
Fees: All of the services we found begin with a free option. Some have paid upgrades (between $70 and $165 per year) for add-ons like in-depth profiles of members and other perks. Babysitter Exchange, for example, limits the number of babysitting requests you can make per month without a premium account.
How it works: Set up a network and invite family and friends to join online (more can join later). When you need a babysitter, you choose specific people within the network to send out your request to via e-mail, with all the details about the gig. If they accept, you’re notified via e-mail.
When you babysit, you’re either paid with credits (also called tokens or points) that are earned based on a formula: say, 1 point for every 15 minutes of child care. We found one service, Sit4Sit, that’s calculated on a direct hour-for-hour basis. And Babysitter Exchange has options to awards bonus points for tougher jobs, like babysitting during the day rather than after kids are in bed.
You then apply your credits or points to “pay” for a babysitter when you need one. Some services start everyone out with some points, while with others you’ll be in the hole at first, until you do your first babysitting job.
Services we’ve found for Canadian parents:
Sit4Sit
Sitting Around
Babysitter Exchange
SitSwap.ca
DIY Babysitting Co-operatives
The advantage of a service rather than setting up, say, a Facebook group with people you know to request babysitting is that the online services track hours/points for you. But if you’d rather be “off-the-grid” and do it yourself, it’s possible. (People were doing this before the Internet!)
Fees: Free or whatever you decide. You may want to give the spreadsheet tracker or group “administrator” a small fee or extra babysitting points.
How it works: You’ll need to dedicate a detail-oriented person in the group to keep track of the hours and points. You could take turns doing it, but things will probably be smoother with one admin.
One great option is to create a Google Doc spreadsheet that calculates points with formulas based on whichever system you prefer (hour-for-hour, or points for established time intervals). But you could set up a more casual system without a dedicated service, by creating up a Facebook group with other parents or just an e-mail list. This starts to get complicated as you add more members, however.
You could also take it completely offline, with a system in which parents exchange poker chips or pre-printed tickets. Whether you’re doing it online or off, make sure you’ve established a system or rules for:
- calculating value of hours
- scheduling and tracking hours and points
- cancelling and what to do when either party is late or a babysitter is a no-show
- dealing with parents dropping out of the group and with complaints/removing parents
- keeping everyone’s contact info up to date.
How To Create a Parent Network
The real trick is to build a network of parents you trust. If you don’t already know a group of likeminded parents who live nearby, you’ll have to do some legwork.
Here are some tips for creating a babysitting co-operative network (and for meeting new families for play dates!):
- strike up conversations with other parents at your child’s day care or school
- ask about placing an ad in the daycare or school newsletter, website, or social media channels
- cruise the local playground (in a non-creepy way, we mean!)
- join local classes or groups in your area and chat with the parents
- go to local family events and block parties—you could even contact the organizer and ask for advice in getting the word out
- reach out to all friends, coworkers, and family asking for leads on parents in your area
- put up fliers at local kindergyms, rec centres, early learning centres, kid cafes, etc. (and/or ask if they’ll tweet info about your group)
