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Tips for Hiring a Babysitter
880 Plays8 days ago
Leaving your kids with a babysitter—easy for some, nerve-wracking for others. In episode 11, Megan and the hosts open up about their early anxieties, from over-detailed instructions (yes, even writing out “Shh shh”) to navigating boundaries with in-laws. They discuss how their trust levels changed as their kids got older and even debate whether having a nanny cam is a good idea.
You'll hear some wild babysitting stats, tips for finding the right sitter (CPR certification, anyone?), and the inside scoop on going rates. Plus, Kallie shares her experience with a babysitting service, and Megan interviews two experts from Sitter Connect for professional hiring advice.
The episode kicks off with a fun chat about the overuse of “LOL,” a round of hilarious “Mom Fails” (moldy washing machines and lost chocolates, anyone?), and wraps up with “Pits and Peaks” from the week.
Stay tuned till the end to hear more about Sitter Connect and how they can help you find a sitter you trust!
🎧 Listen now!
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Transcript
The Dead Mouse Discovery
00:00:00
Speaker
So I walked down to my office and just a mouse just like splayed out. Oh, good shit. Not alive. No, no. Like I, I mean, I. Oh, that's worse. Is that worse or better? I don't think that's worse. I think it's better because I've had to like track them down. This office is such a mess that he wouldn't have to go far to like disappear behind some clutter, which would make me crazy.
00:00:23
Speaker
but But there's never just one. There was a dead rat up the street for me the other day. And my neighbor sent me a photo and i was like, that's not the type of animals I like to see. i don't, Want to see a dead rat.
00:00:35
Speaker
Okay. and I don't know what side of the algorithm I'm on. I saw, I'm sure it was TikTok because that's the one that's unhinged. Rat throwing. Did you know that is a thing? Like live?
00:00:46
Speaker
No, they were real dead. There was this sweetest like angelic little child and her mother was like, you got this honey. And she's literally holding this like nasty rat by the tail, like swinging it. And there's all these people watching and it's like one, two. And then she she didn't do great.
00:01:02
Speaker
But she threw it and everyone, I don't know what part of the world, what country, who does this. But I feel like use if we did that here, we'd get like x off Instagram.
Introduction to 'Just For Moms' Podcast
00:01:15
Speaker
Welcome to Just For Moms. I'm Charlotte. I'm Caitlin. I'm Megan. And I'm Callie. We are regular moms talking about regular stuff like aging, parenthood, work-life balance, and figuring out what's for dinner.
00:01:27
Speaker
Again, no-judgment zone to talk, laugh, and maybe cry about all the things women think about on a daily basis. Okay, should we go? Are we ready? Okay.
00:01:38
Speaker
Okay. Just For Moms here. Megan, Charlotte, Callie and Caitlin, we're all here. Ooh, roll call. This is when the Brady Bunch thing would be so cool. Oh, yeah. Anyways, so how is everyone? Everyone's happy that the sun's out longer?
00:01:54
Speaker
60 degrees, baby. I feel like a new woman, although I almost didn't make it here. I was carrying everything down the stairs and I was like, it would be so sad if I tripped and fell.
00:02:06
Speaker
And then my laptop battery fell and hit my foot. And like, I kind of stumbled and I was whew, I'm okay. And then I had to run upstairs and grab something else. And I slid across one of the rugs in my house. And I was like, that's two times.
00:02:20
Speaker
If I go up again, it's going to be the third and I'm going wipe out. And
Texting Habits and the Use of 'LOL'
00:02:24
Speaker
then. was going to say, do you have nanny cams? you how some people have cameras all over their house? No, sadly I don't. Did you have socks on too, on the stairs?
00:02:33
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. I know. That'll get you. and Yes. So I wanted to ask you all, apparently I do this and people don't like it. When you're texting or messaging someone and you just, let's say I send a reel to Charlotte or Charlotte sends me a reel and we're waiting for that, her response, my response.
00:02:59
Speaker
And all you write is LOL. I didn't realize this, but I've been seeing it all over social media. LOL is like an annoying response. People have a problem with it and you're not supposed to do it.
00:03:12
Speaker
In what generation? Because I'm fine with it. I know. That's what I thought. I've been seeing more like discussion about it, more reels, and you're not supposed to write LOL.
00:03:23
Speaker
And I do it all day long, When I speak even to people and it's not sending a reel, LOL, like I don't understand. i guess we're not so supposed to do it.
00:03:38
Speaker
Do you do it, Charlotte? Do you respond, LOL? No. No, but I never have. I'm i'm not the LOL generation. Okay. Callie, do you respond to LOL if I sent you a funny real meme? Do you? Yeah. I LOL.
00:03:50
Speaker
I mean, maybe I'm starting to just like, like things more now that we have that option, but no, I'm okay. I mean, I heard at one point that yeah, saying LOL just makes you old, but whatever. okay Listen, hi some, some habits die hard.
00:04:03
Speaker
Okay. Caitlin, do you respond to LOL? I'm usually like a face. Like I like the emoji with like the, the, the, But does anyone else think it's rude?
00:04:15
Speaker
No. Like apparently. got an LOL. Some people have a problem with it. I've been learning here. It's rude if you send something that's not funny and someone writes back LOL because then I'm like, you didn't watch it. It's not funny. That was, just hurt my feelings.
00:04:29
Speaker
Yeah. I would probably just double tap the thing and not even text back. I know you still get a notification. And then if I wanted to communicate that I had in fact laughed out loud, I would probably just do ha ha.
00:04:42
Speaker
That's my ah version of. so But I also, do you guys have automatic keystrokes set up in your phones? No. So I have a handful for responding to comments and ha happens to be one of them. So if I just do an HH.
00:04:56
Speaker
it automatically populates. If I do a TY, it automatically populates. Thank you. So I do have a handful of things that I'm used to writing because I can do it real quick. Got it.
00:05:07
Speaker
And I could, I could set up an LOL one. I just don't use that one. It's not that hard, you know. i mean Apparently that's the way to do it, Charlotte. So good job. I'm like, I'm so much older that I've looped around to being like fresh.
00:05:21
Speaker
We should all just change our keystroke to from LOL to be something else. Like that was so funny. I'm laughing out loud. We're the skulls. Dead. So now in our four person group chain text, no more l LOLs for Megan.
00:05:38
Speaker
I'm in a to prove that I'm not that person. Okay. For a hot second, I thought, I thought Caitlin was just drinking a Natty Light there. Yeah. I got a vodka right here and I got a beer right here. She's got a polar seltzer, but like for just a second, was like, is she drinking a, just a beer?
00:05:55
Speaker
Okay. The sun made me feel like I needed a cold one. Okay. So moving on to mom fails. feel like I have one every day. I'm going to go first. I have a moldy, disgusting washer. It's a huge mom fail. I'm so embarrassed. That's mine. Charlotte, what's yours?
00:06:12
Speaker
So I think my Google, we were just talking about this last episode. My Google Drive app is not talking to my desktop. I think I put that I have a couple kids who claim to put on deodorant. Do I say this every week and they never do? Yes. It makes me crazy. I've said it before.
00:06:28
Speaker
Well, last week we talked about smelly kids. Yeah. Okay. It's just the same thing. Like I just will look over and I, I'm like, what am I doing wrong here? So that's, it's an old, it's old news, but that's it. Okay.
00:06:39
Speaker
Callie. I have one. So the other day we were driving in the car and my daughter noticed that there was a man running on the street and he was running without a shirt on, which is a normal thing for a man to. And she commented on it.
00:06:52
Speaker
And I was like, yeah, it's probably hot out. But then I realized she commented on it because we have to have a lot of discussions in the house about why you have to put your clothes on. And so she was kind of like, wait, how come it's OK that this man doesn't have his clothes on?
00:07:05
Speaker
And I just I failed in the moment, like I feel like I could have done it so much better. But like, you know how sometimes you're just caught off guard by these like kind of important conversations. And it just like nothing was it was the end of the day at school pickup, like nothing was coming to me about like, how to properly have this discussion with my daughter about why men cannot have shorts on and women can't. Yes.
00:07:27
Speaker
And I, and also just like, and my brain was fried, but part of me was like, why can't we, why can't we just take our shirts off? You know, but it was just a mom fail. Like I could have handled it so much better and I didn't.
00:07:40
Speaker
So. I have one. have one. An answer or a fail? No, I have a fail. Oh. I always say I never had a fail and I didn't mean to cut you off, Callie. I just got excited. No, I'm done.
00:07:51
Speaker
I was waiting patiently. So every year at the end of the damp season, the girls have these like giant, I don't even know what they're called. We call them Paparaks. That's probably their name. And it's what they store their costumes in. And it has their dance shoes and all during competition season, I keep up with it. But then after the recital, I kind of just roll it somewhere. And I'm like, I don't have to see you again until next year. And I was trying to be good about it. And I forget when I thought I cleaned it out.
00:08:18
Speaker
But yesterday I opened it up to clean it out because we have competition coming up. And I was like, good job, Caitlin. There's only costumes in here. And then I'm digging through the bottom and I lift up the Velcro portion and there's like 13 Hershey kisses, a bunch of half eaten almonds.
00:08:34
Speaker
And it's been in my garage where animals live. So fail on my part for not cleaning it out, but when on my part that the animals didn't find the secret stash.
00:08:44
Speaker
Yeah. So this year when I, I got to dump it out. It could have been worse. have been like milk or cheese or something. Yeah. For an apple. Yeah. I remembered mine and it's, it's also a fail.
00:08:57
Speaker
My kid just came down with a pair of shorts that I know were not theirs. And I was like, didn't you borrow? This had been borrowed from someone in the fall because they like fell into a pool or something.
00:09:09
Speaker
And I was like, we have seen this family probably weekly since the fall, like WTF. He was like, well, no one like basically no one reminded me or we haven't seen them at their house. So now I have to bring, I mean, they're not going to care, but I have to bring this pair of clothing back.
00:09:22
Speaker
Like, hey, remember when we borrowed this? It's all right. They'll understand, Charlotte. i they when I've never done that. It's okay. yeah But if they grow like my kids, they won't fit anymore. the family... Okay, moving on to our topic this week, leaving our kids with a babysitter.
Leaving Kids with Babysitters: Anxieties and Precautions
00:09:39
Speaker
So I'm going to start off with sharing my personal experience, and I'm a little, don't know if it's embarrassed is the word, but with my first daughter, Ava, I was definitely a little psychopath about leaving Ava with a sitter, right?
00:10:01
Speaker
It was definitely, my being my first, I only left her with family members. It was definitely probably even more intense of just being grandparents.
00:10:12
Speaker
So my husband, his mom or dad are my parents. And it was like that, I would say, for the first year of her life till, you know, I kind of realized that you can utilize cousins or a friend or someone else and I went to the extreme of also writing down very intense instructions.
00:10:38
Speaker
Same. I remember, I feel like Ava was, was she even like two months old and we had a friend's wedding to go to. And I left out instructions that were probably like back to front for my mother-in-law.
00:10:53
Speaker
Again, because, you know, it wasn't my mom, it was my mother-in-law. So I trust her, but I was just, again, you know being very cautious mom. And I mean, i even remember to this day things I wrote.
00:11:06
Speaker
And one of them was if she starts to get fussy, like I wrote out the shh, shh, shh, Like she didn't know. and I remember she looked at the list and was probably like, like, okay, like watched, she had her own daycare too at one point, but anyway, so then by the second and the third, obviously, then you release the reins a little bit. But for the first, I just remember my personal experience of just being a little too cautious.
00:11:36
Speaker
I did exactly the same thing. Okay. Same. I was very nervous to like dive into it, but okay, Charlotte, how was your experience? Mine needed a staple. I mean, that's, we didn't really have sitters because we were in the city and we had, we had a nanny who was always looking for hours because she was only for us a couple days a week. And so if we did go out,
00:11:57
Speaker
We would just have her stay or do that. And that sort of continued until we came out to the suburbs. But I remember with my oldest when she was, you know, she was little enough that she couldn't talk. And for me, that was the point of most anxiety because it was like, I'm not going to know if the three hours they were with this person was miserable or not.
00:12:16
Speaker
And I do remember leaving her with my mother-in-law. And I think it's that what you were saying, Megan. Like, I knew she could do it, but I also knew that she did it very differently than we were doing it. And I remember being like, we try not to say, and this was my mantra as a teacher, we don't say, don't don't climb on the table.
00:12:36
Speaker
We say, get down from the table. So we give positive. And I just remember thinking, I need to put this out there or else this weekend is going to be filled with don't don't don't, don't, don't, which whatever, who cares? But at the time I was like, okay, we got to like set the boundaries. Set the tone. Set the tone. That's right. That's right. That's right.
00:12:54
Speaker
So we did exactly the same thing. Okay, good. but I'll never forget my, we only, for my first two, I don't even know the first time they ever saw real babysitter. They were probably like seven. because it was just always family.
00:13:06
Speaker
But did your in-laws, and I'm saying in-laws because my mom knew I would have just like lost it on her, would they do things that they thought were probably right, even though you had it like explicitly said not to, for example?
00:13:21
Speaker
And I can say this because my mother-in-law knows that I tell this story, but she used to say, why don't you put her to sleep on her belly? And I'm like, you can't put an infant to sleep on her belly. Like, I don't care if she cries. I don't care if she has a dairy allergy and her belly hurts. Like, you can't put her to sleep on her belly. And I remember coming home and she was like, she's on her belly in the crib. I hope you're not mad. But she s slept.
00:13:42
Speaker
And I was like, what? And I ran upstairs. And of course, she was alive and she was fine. But... After that, we were like, yeah, never never again. like You're not allowed to. I don't care if she sleeps.
00:13:55
Speaker
Yeah. I do remember that because we used to all sleep on our belly, right? And now today. With all the stuffed animals. and yeah Everybody has that picture of them as a baby with like all the blankets. Yeah.
00:14:07
Speaker
The closest that we came to that, Caitlin, was my father-in-law would put them in the front seat. And oh yeah my my husband had to speak to him and just be like, this isn't a choice. Like, just don't do it. But we also pulled our kids aside and we're like, I know you're excited to be in the front, but you know. threw my father-in-law under the bus so real fast. We were like, he doesn't know anything about anything. Sit in the back. We actually just experienced that one ah like two summers ago and had to be like, that's, nope, that's not a thing. That's not allowed.
00:14:39
Speaker
And my kids were like, oops, hee, hee, hee, hee. And I said, no, you should have known better. Yeah, I know. I remember we had a wagon too, and we used to get in the back and we would sit in the back with no seatbelts. My mom even said she would take the carrier, put it me in the back of the wagon, and I wasn't even seatbelt. she would drive me to work like that.
00:14:59
Speaker
Just rolling around. Times have changed. Now you can't do that. You'll get like the baby taken away. But I think that nothing. My mother-in-law is wonderful. She's a great mom. She's a great Nana and everything like that. However, I think that one moment probably set the tone, which is why I never wanted to trust anybody else to watch my children.
00:15:19
Speaker
We also lived in Georgia and there was, we didn't know anybody except family. I remember my neighbor watched them for like an hour, probably once. And I panicked the entire time, but for the most part,
00:15:30
Speaker
my mom would rather fly down from Connecticut and babysit than us try to find someone random somewhere. But now we're, I mean, if I, once we find a babysitter, we hold on to them tight and don't even want to share them. And, and we stick with them until they go to college or they are graduated from college and move. And I don't have a problem anymore, but.
00:15:53
Speaker
Arbor, I'm so much more lenient with the babysitter. Of course, it always starts out with a three-page document. But then by the third time, I'm like, and I trust you. Just do whatever works. Do you have sitters, Callie? Because for me, the shift was when my kids were old enough to be sort of autonomous. And I just got less.
00:16:09
Speaker
I mean, Miles, I think, would be fine. But it's a different dynamic when they're little. Yeah. Yeah, it is a different dynamic. And especially, I feel like, when they're really little, I feel like there is that. There's always still that part.
00:16:21
Speaker
I mean, I become far more lenient with all of my babies. I was just like you guys. I mean, like I had the 8 million notes of things that people didn't need to know, but there's always still that little bit of um when they're really little, like the story that you told Caitlin, where you're nervous that somebody is going to do something that,
00:16:38
Speaker
you just don't feel safe about. And I think that's sort of the difference of, you know, to your point, Charlotte, where you're like, we don't use the word don't. That's not really a safety thing, right? So there's like the two parts.
00:16:49
Speaker
And I was the same way with my first and my second. Like I wanted the babysitter or whoever's watching my kid to do everything. Like I thought that they had to do everything exactly the way I did it. And I forget where I heard it somewhere that somebody was like,
00:17:03
Speaker
it's actually beneficial for your child to experience other kinds of um parenting is not the word I'm looking for, but like guidance, like it is okay that I think I was actually listening. It was listening to somebody talking about the way that we talk about food in front of our kids.
00:17:17
Speaker
And, you know, there's all these, you know, things you're telling your kid to finish the plate, you know, that's sort of an old school thing. And I think that was the discussion. She was like, if grandpa comes over and he's like, you got to finish your plate or you need two more bites until you're done. Like,
00:17:30
Speaker
It's all right. Like that is that is a single transaction they're having with like that adult. That's not how you're parenting them or what they're seeing all of the time. And so I got a lot better about that being like, it's okay because people are going again, the only word I can think of is parent my child different, but you know what I mean? They're going sort of guide my child different and that's okay.
00:17:47
Speaker
But where I always got, and I still sometimes will get funny is like when it's a safety thing. So like when they're going in the car, or if it's an infant sleeping thing. Like my youngest is now six months. So we're sort of getting out of that, you know, sort of tricky area.
00:18:00
Speaker
But that's where I always would feel the most nervous is when it's a, we even have a ah babysitter that we use. We had her last summer and we have her coming back this summer. She's in college. She's wonderful. We love her so much, but we've never had her drive the kids anywhere. And we're like, it's still, we're like,
00:18:15
Speaker
I don't know that I want to. And I don't know that I'm, I'm being, I'm like, am I being like overly paranoid? But that's a scary thing. Like she is very mature. She's wonderful. She's great with the kids, but you're just different at 18. You know, like when I drove a car, like I was a mature 18 year old, but I was like, I drove in a car very differently.
00:18:30
Speaker
and so, you know, there's always just those, like, what do you feel comfortable with? Yeah, I agree, Callie with the car situation too. That's a whole different ball game when you're going to have someone other than yourself and the grandparents. And if it's yeah they're young,
00:18:45
Speaker
I don't even think we've done that. i don like even cousins. I can't even, I don't even think my kids have been in their cousins cars without me, with me is one thing. Right.
00:18:56
Speaker
And another thing too today with technology and monitors and like the phone and we can watch. I just remember we had had a cousin come over and watch the three kids and We put Nico to bed, because he's the youngest.
00:19:14
Speaker
I just didn't feel 100% about who we chose to babysit, and I do remember logging in to check the monitor. Everything was fine, like everything was good, but a lot of parents also have cameras in their house too today. I don't have that, but I know some parents when they leave their kids with sitters or people they don't know, they have cameras in the living room, they have cameras in the bedroom.
00:19:40
Speaker
What's your thoughts on when you leave your kids with a babysitter, do you think it's a good idea to have cameras in the house? That whole... I've never left my kids for that long of a time where I feel like I'd want to watch them.
00:19:55
Speaker
I've never had anyone stay overnight with my children. That's not my parents. I actually have a camera. I just realized I have one that I could plug in and put somewhere. And I debated, like we have to leave Arbor...
00:20:07
Speaker
With a babysitter, I trust so much, but I debated putting it there just so almost like if Arbor wanted to come over and say hello to me because I'm going to be away at a dance competition all day long, maybe I would do that.
00:20:18
Speaker
But I could see if we had someone new and there was some kind of family emergency where we were going to gone all day, we couldn't have anybody check in even overnight, that I would set up that camera.
00:20:31
Speaker
And probably let them know I put it there. i don't think I would be sneaky about it and like hide it in a bear or something. Yeah, we don't have cameras either. But also I think it's sort of similar. We've never hired somebody that wasn't all of our baby. We work. My husband and i both work from home. So anybody who has ever babysat our kids when we're not here has been here with us many, many times.
00:20:51
Speaker
before that so we've always felt comfortable I mean I'm not like against it I can totally see if you're some especially if it's maybe you're in a position where you have to bring in somebody new and you don't have you know I mean Charlotte what's your thoughts on security cameras in the house we don't have them don't I don't know that I get them.
00:21:13
Speaker
I'm sure there's valid reasons, but for me, i can never figure out what that would be. Like, we don't really have sitters and my kids are old enough that I don't know. I don't know what I'd be like. My kids would just call me if there was an issue. So we've we've sort of aged out of the wanting to check in stage. And i guess I just don't need to.
00:21:33
Speaker
I don't know. I mean, i guess I'd want to hear why people have cameras. Is it for? Well, can imagine, like you said earlier, when you're like when the child is young enough that they can't really tell you what's going on.
00:21:44
Speaker
With little, yeah. When they're young. Yes. You know, maybe you get a story. I mean, think about, i mean, I think about even, i mean, my six-year-old is much better about it. I think about my four-year-old. Every time she tells me something that happened at school, I'm like, that's probably like 50% correct.
00:21:56
Speaker
You know, like everything gets, so if you ever needed to, to, cross-reference I could see yeah I mean I can't imagine just sitting there and watching but don't you think some people have cameras just because like I guess that's what I'm sure yeah yeah it's like what would you what when people have security cameras and this is I know a right turn from like babysitting and nannies and all that but when people just have cameras set up I don't is it because they're worried that someone's going to break into their house and then they'll have evidence I guess that's the part of it where I'm like I don't know that anything's happening that I care about.
00:22:27
Speaker
That's the only, we got our camera for free and I set it up in the playroom because it looks at the sliding doors. The first reason I ever had it there was Brandon was traveling and I, that door scares me because there's no way for me to hear or see that someone's breaking in the door. And so I put the camera right there.
00:22:46
Speaker
I never even checked it. But I always wondered that too, why you would set up cameras all over your house. It seems kind of creepy to me. i don't, I don't know. Agreed. I feel like you get the internet's going to hack it and then like yeah watch me in my living room. Yeah. It's like my biggest fear.
00:23:02
Speaker
I'm like, I don't. Okay. So we all agree. We don't use cameras first that are watching. Perfect. yeah Okay. Moving on. I wanted to share some stats with the babysitter world here. In the U.S., a significant portion of parents utilize some form of child care with estimates suggesting that roughly 33 to of parents with children under five, and then 48 59% of parents with school-aged children rely on family, friends, or neighbors for child care.
00:23:41
Speaker
Another stat I wanted to share that when hiring a sitter these days, 97.1% female and two point nine percent is male i found this I was like, wow, it kind of is true. It's a stereotype, but don't you feel like there's more females
Gender Preferences in Babysitting: Male vs Female Sitters
00:24:00
Speaker
than male? Well, because I don't think boys are like, I need a job. I'm going to go babysit.
00:24:04
Speaker
Where girls, you're like, I'm 15 and I need a job. Oh, I'll be a babysitter. That's an easy one. Yes. Although I do have to say I have... One friend that has four boys and she always makes sure to hire a male sitter because her boys just, like she said, it's she they relate to him. They're more comfortable and they ask to have a male sitter to watch them and be with them, which I get.
00:24:28
Speaker
Yeah. We had one boy babysitter when we were little and it was just the excitement that I felt when this babysitter came over was unmatched.
00:24:41
Speaker
That's awesome. Who was the boy babysitter in the babysitter's club books? Wasn't there one? Like it. I can't remember. I'm looking at you, Charlotte. Cause I feel like. I read them all, but I want to say there's a second wave of them.
00:24:55
Speaker
Like I read was the old ones though. I don't know. We'll Google it. We can like Stacy's boyfriend came and helped her once or something. Okay. Yeah. I also wanted to share that 89% of parents had to cancel plans in the last six months.
00:25:11
Speaker
And it was due to the sitter struggle of hiring a sitter. Maybe they canceled. You know, I know a lot of my friends, their sitters always cancel on them like a few hours before. and then they're like, okay, we can't meet you anymore. I cancel on sitters all the time, mainly because they're expensive.
00:25:28
Speaker
And I'll be like, you know what? We don't really need to go and do this. Or this wasn't really that important. But it is so expensive for three kids to have a babysitter come for a couple hours. And then if you're going out to dinner, or you're spending...
00:25:41
Speaker
money at dinner. And by the time of the end of the night, I'm like, oh my gosh, I should have just stayed at home and put my kids to bed early. like What do you guys pay your sitters? What's the going rate? This is so regional, I find. For three, usually they want anywhere from 20 to 25. It depends on who it is.
00:26:00
Speaker
We pay, yeah, we pay. So we blanket pay our like babysitters 25. And that's mostly, we have a few that we could definitely pay a little bit less because they're not quite as quality, we have a high schooler, but I'm like, I just can't keep everybody's, like we have summer help.
00:26:15
Speaker
And then we have ah our nannies, we pay higher than that. So I don't feel like i need to like broadcast, not for me, I don't really care, but i don't think it's fair to them for me to broadcast what they're making.
00:26:26
Speaker
ah But yeah, our babysitters are, and that's like high school into college, you know, or a little bit higher. Same 20 to 25. And then my daughters are 12 and 14 and they both babysit here for neighbors and it's $20 and it's usually, they only babysit between like Gianna's 12, two to four hours. She makes $20 an hour.
00:26:47
Speaker
yeah Oh, well, that's not, I see up here, we have the mommy helpers who are under like 16 and they 10 to $12 an hour and you're home with them. And then our, actually, if there's just one child, I pay 18 and I've never had anybody really complain or say they want more.
00:27:06
Speaker
That's a lot of money for a 12 year old. I agree. Yeah. Yeah. She's watching the two kids and the parents aren't home. I mean, it's only two hours at most. And she took the CPR babysitter course online. So she has that.
00:27:20
Speaker
What's your thoughts, Charlotte? When we have sitters, it's so rare. My kids can, we don't really need one. So we only need to sit her if we know we're going to be gone until like midnight or something. And so then it's just a body in the house.
00:27:32
Speaker
And I think it's probably 20 bucks an hour and then we round up. So I don't know, on average, it's probably what you're saying. Also, they're doing nothing. They're not, my kids are watching TV. So I don't feel, it's like, come spend your night on your phone at my house. When my kids babysit, yeah, I think it's 15 $20. I mean,
00:27:49
Speaker
My high schooler is probably the only one that does more babysitting. And it's probably about that 15 to 20. I'm certainly whatever the parents give her is fine with all of us. Yes. Yeah. And i like you were saying, our kids are both, ah we have older kids, Charlene and I, and I agree.
00:28:06
Speaker
The only time I feel like I need to have someone come here. And we just went away this past weekend was for the staying through the night. We went away and Ava was like, mom, I got it. We're fine. And Nico, you know, wanted his older sister to tuck them in. We don't need Nana, but I just worry if there's a fire, God forbid, or,
00:28:26
Speaker
Anything. So she came late, like 8, 830, and she did stay overnight. She probably didn't need to, but I had her here just for safety issues, I guess. We've always done, we've always had a landline too. And now that more of my kids have cell phones, it just means I get less concerned.
00:28:44
Speaker
But a landline was always something that we had so that if there was an issue, even the like eight-year-olds could call us, which was reassuring for everyone. What's your thoughts, Callie?
00:28:55
Speaker
Well, I have, so I have a question. Obviously my oldest is six, so we're not yes there yet. where I mean, we now, if Michael and I are going to be gone, we, I mean, we have somebody who could watch all four, but we typically will have two people if we're going to be gone for, I mean, I've got a six month old and a one year old, like that's a one person job on its own. It's like, we we literally are at a two babysitter position right now. So my question is at what age did you guys start feeling comfortable leaving a child at home? ah Alone.
00:29:21
Speaker
Yeah. Alone. ah I think fifth grade is when i feel like I looked it up and like 12 is sort of the magic number legally.
00:29:32
Speaker
and But there were sort of variables like if I'm just running to get someone at soccer practice, so it's going to be an hour and they can call me on the landline. I'll leave my 10-year-old home alone for a couple of hours because I know he's sitting on his Kindle and reading. We also happen to have neighbors kind of on all four sides. So if the house did burn down, it's like you're running to like but Kristen's house or John's house.
00:29:55
Speaker
And then as far as like if when would we go out for dinner, that's probably more seventh, eighth, ninth grade with the caveat that my phone's going to be on the table ready to answer if need be.
00:30:07
Speaker
And we would feed them and then just say, You know, the timer is going to go off at nine. Go to bed. Yeah. Yeah. Oh, Charlotte, I just realized I said no. And you I lied right before you spoke because my oldest, I'll leave her home alone. But I would.
00:30:23
Speaker
She's 11 like an hour. And she can message me from her watch, from an iPad. But I would never leave her home alone with my eight year old because they would murder each other. Yes. They would. So solo.
00:30:37
Speaker
Yes. Never. Have any of you experienced babysitter stealing? What's that? have not gone through this, but I know some of my friends have. Where, let's say Charlotte's like, hey, Megan, do you have any recommendations for a sitter?
00:30:53
Speaker
And I'd be like, yes, Charlotte. Here she is. Here's Jane. Try her out. And Charlotte might pay Jane a little more than I paid her, and now Jane's staying with Charlotte, and Jane's not giving me hours anymore. So this is a whole thing, babysitter stealing.
00:31:07
Speaker
What's your thoughts, Charlotte? I mean, I think it happens. I had someone try to poach our, we had a part-time sitter that we split with another family and I had someone try to poach her to be her full-time sitter. And I got wind of that. If you meet someone good, I would probably do the same thing.
00:31:23
Speaker
It's like, yeah I don't know. All's fair in love and babysitting, right? My friend and I have shared, my friend let me have her nanny be our babysitter. And so, and she's still nannies for her kids. So we always have to cross check, like just Yesterday, I texted her I'm like, hey, are she are you okay if she leaves your house at this time and comes to me? Are you going to be home?
00:31:43
Speaker
I don't want to you know steal her away from you. But I did have someone that used to babysit for us. And she said, do you know any other families? Because you know you don't need anybody for the next couple months. And i gave her those numbers. And next thing you know, everyone had hired her. And so then when I needed her, she's like, sorry, I'm full.
00:32:04
Speaker
was like, oh okay. You're welcome. What about you? What about you, Callie? Any babysitter ceiling going on in your house? No, we haven't really had that. I mean, we have typically we've since we started hiring on babysitters, which we were like kind of slow to the game to do it because we were just nervous. And then I had children during COVID.
00:32:24
Speaker
We've hired a lot of the babysitters that we end up using are the nannies that we have during the week. So we kind of like have them on a on a rotation anyways. But I had somebody the other day come up to me and they're like, our nanny takes my one-year-old to a play group and they're like, Hey, your nanny is so great. And like, right away, I was like, you can't have her.
00:32:41
Speaker
And like that, so they didn't even know want to steal her. They just like wanted to know like how we found her. But I just like got so, I got so defensive right away. I was like, don't even think about it. I will pay her double what you're offering. Cause like when you have somebody good, yeah, you don't want to let them go.
00:32:55
Speaker
Yes. ah For new parents out there, i just wanted to share some tips. We have started to use babysitters that aren't family.
00:33:06
Speaker
And for me, i would always ask for reference, references, their experience. And then also another thing is the CPR trained Red Cross, if they've taken that course.
00:33:20
Speaker
And if you Do want to do this, but I have not, but I know some people do. Have them come over to the house and see how they interact with your child.
00:33:32
Speaker
Maybe like observe from afar. Don't be like on top of them. But this does help so you can see or go upstairs and let them play downstairs and you can kind of like listen. So those are just um some tips. And also if you want to write things out as well, leave a list. Not too crazy, but...
00:33:50
Speaker
I don't know what your thoughts are on if with hiring babysitters. ah Charlotte, do you do the same sort of things? A little bit. and This will maybe tie in nicely to, I know we have a guest that we're going to be hearing from in a little bit because the only sitters that I've hired in that regard were when they were more sort of in that nanny category. And I did use agencies like care.com.
00:34:14
Speaker
And I found that putting a couple sort of specific things in the job description was helpful to see if they responded to those. Like I would always include that we have a dog. And it was always pretty clear which people were just cutting and pasting their responses like, hey, I love kids. I saw your application. I'm interested.
00:34:30
Speaker
If they didn't respond to I'm comfortable with dogs or some of the other things, I was like, you're gone. Meeting them in person for me was huge. And I think to your point, just seeing how they interact with the kids. I was always looking for people that were sort of self-starters.
00:34:46
Speaker
So I didn't want them to look to me to tell them what to do. Like, within guidelines, obviously within reason, but I wanted to see that they just were comfortable and sort of took charge as a nanny. I wanted to see that they would be comfortable, not that I would take advantage of it, but I was like, you're just doing what I am doing. So there may be a day when I need you to like, go pick up my groceries. I know your job is to take care of my kids, but this is all part of the deal.
00:35:15
Speaker
and just to gauge their feedback. If they were like, totally, that's obviously, that's great. That was better than,
00:35:25
Speaker
And I had pretty good luck. I think meeting them in person for something like a nanny was helpful because I was going to be home with them. And so I just needed to get a sense of it. I was always comfortable with people that had worked with small kids, obviously. So when my kids were infants, our first nanny had a baby of her own. So sort of depending on how old my kids are, that sort of have you worked with someone in that age? Because, you know, when you're the parent of a two-year-old, they feel like a unicorn and then so on and so forth. What about you, Caitlin? What's your experience with hiring babysitters? so I mean, ah pretty much the same. I always, we like talk on the phone, we FaceTime, or they come to the house before I even hire them.
00:36:05
Speaker
And I want to see how my kids interact with them. But for the most part, i would go through Facebook groups. but There's like a babysitter group for my town and two or three surrounding towns.
00:36:20
Speaker
And there's a lot of kind of fake people in there. it i don't It's almost like a spam accounts and stuff. So I haven't used them as much anymore. And back when I was using it, I did have some people come by or FaceTime that I was like, oh, we're not actually going to need you because we didn't jive.
00:36:39
Speaker
But I'd say for the most part, the people that we do hire for babysitting are people we know that somebody else is recommended or our dance studio, there's just so many girls that can babysit or be mommy's helpers. And I find that's really great. I also think that it's really important that you have the whole family meet them, like even your husband or your partner, because it can be awkward to bring someone new in and to have them coming and hanging out with your children all the time.
00:37:08
Speaker
And they don't meet your partner until a couple times in and you're not there. And that's happened where my husband's like, she didn't speak to me. She wouldn't even look me in the eye. And I'm like, well, you guys haven't met before. So I do that now. yes Yes.
00:37:22
Speaker
And I heard you mentioned too, which I just wanted to throw out there, mother's helpers. Yeah. That's like a really big thing right now that I, I never utilized or had, but.
00:37:34
Speaker
Oh, it's awesome. And it's the you know last summer we had two girls from the studio and, you know, we have a neighborhood pool. I don't want to get in the pool with my toddler all the time. They will be, they're more than happy to put on a bathing suit and get the pool with the toddler.
00:37:47
Speaker
And they just caught, like I had last summer, they would come to Costco with me and, you know, carting around three kids plus someone to help is nice because I can say, Hey, watch them all in the cart. Well, I'm going run down another aisle or we go to the library, we can all split up.
00:38:01
Speaker
And so that's really nice. And that's what I was saying. They only ask for 10 to $12,
00:38:06
Speaker
I'm there. And a lot of times I'm still making everyone lunch, but at least I know my children are being supervised while I can go do things around the house.
00:38:17
Speaker
so but And the nice thing about those guys is that you can, like a lot of times I have great ideas and stuff that I would do with my kids, but I have to do work or I just don't want to. And so you could get the craft project or whatever the cooking project set up. And then the younger kids, it's like fun for them too. So it's sort of win-win.
00:38:36
Speaker
Agreed. Yeah. And I feel like they're big in the summer. I know our town pool, I see them. And my daughter Gianna was like, mom, I want to be a mother's helper this summer. I'm like, perfect. Do it. Callie, what's your experience with hiring babysitters?
Hiring Babysitters: Challenges and Strategies
00:38:50
Speaker
Yeah, so we didn't have to hire ah babysitter for the first time until we needed somebody for my second. And she was still pretty young. we don't have family around. So we were never able to kind of like, I mean, my mom lives in Hampshire. She would come down and watch the children. But we it was kind of like our first experience ever, like having somebody else come and like watch our kids.
00:39:09
Speaker
And the first time, you know, she was quite young. So I really wanted somebody that had experience with kids. infants And luckily we found a woman who was studying to work at the NICU. She works in the NICU now and she still babysits for us sometimes.
00:39:22
Speaker
But after that, i I had a really hard time. Like once we were like our time was she was just hired for the summer. I had a really hard time finding somebody through word of mouth. And, you know, I was looking for somebody who would be sort of consistent. And so what I ended up using was what I essentially call like a babysitter matchmaking company. And Megan, I know that you chatted with them and we're going to put your discussion with them in here, but that has since been my bread and butter because it's taken away all of the legwork for me of having to like ask around and try to find someone. And I feel like we do have a somewhat unique situation because it's not, we weren't necessarily looking for just a one-off babysitter. We were looking for something
00:40:00
Speaker
you know, more reoccurring. And we've used them since we had our second, we use them with our third and then with our fourth. So like our family dynamic was always changing. But every time we've used them, people are like, what are you talking about? But it's essentially the way that it works is I chat with them.
00:40:16
Speaker
It's just two sisters. I chat with them, you know, they now they know me, but you know, it was like telling them about my family, telling them about Our family dynamics and my kids and their ages and what we need and like what our parenting style is like.
00:40:29
Speaker
And then she went out and would find people that worked or that she thought would be good. And she would send me their information and she'd be like, which ones of these sound good to you?
00:40:40
Speaker
And then from there, I could be like, oh, I like, you know, I don't know, you know, Jen and Jessica. And then she would go out and interview them for me, send me back all the information from the interview. And then from that point, I would take over, they would come to my house, and I would get to meet them.
00:40:55
Speaker
I've had just the best experience because I feel like they're so well vetted. Obviously, she's doing all the background checks. She's doing all of that, you know, the whatever. But she also just is in the circle of babysitters. So just like how we kind of maybe have a few mom friends and we're sharing baby. She just has this like wealth of so many people that she knows that she can pull from.
00:41:14
Speaker
and I think she's just so specialized at matching the right kind of babysitter or nanny with families that we've just always gotten really good matches. And what I love is when you kind of get down to the end part where you're offering them the job and you're kind of trying to decide rates because the That's mean, we talked about that earlier, but you're always like, what I supposed to pay this person? She helps with that part to kind of like, well, this person has more experience or less experience, you could probably pay them that.
00:41:39
Speaker
So it just like, i don't know, it just makes the whole process so much easier. so that's the way that we go now. I mean, like, she's basically on speed dial for me, like if I need somebody now. it Just been, i've I can't, I've, I have told so many people about this because I feel like trying to find good care is so hard and it can be so nerve wracking if you find somebody that you don't feel comfortable with that for me and motherhood has been just like the most amazing thing to sort of like be able to let off of my plate. We're starting a new feature where we're speaking to experts in the field. I had a great time speaking with Sitter Connect.
00:42:12
Speaker
Listen to our full conversation at the end of this episode.
00:42:20
Speaker
Hi, everyone. Megan here with the Just for Moms podcast. We have two amazing guests today, Jessica and Ashley from Sitter Connect. Welcome. Hi, Megan.
00:42:30
Speaker
Thanks so much for having us. Yes, we're so happy to be here. Thank you for being on our podcast. Tips for hiring a babysitter. So for tips, it's really about just matching your needs and really expressing what those needs and wants are so that we're able to Find a candidate that closely pairs with you. Day in the life, what do your kids like to do? What what are they engaged in Outside, inside play, certain types of activities. You know, experience level, what's comfortable for the parents? Sometimes they have a comfort level um with one age group versus another or experience level. So that's another one.
00:43:07
Speaker
And then what would you say, Ashley? Yeah, so similar. So really just somebody obviously that is able to care for the age of your children, right? So understanding their true experience, making sure that your parenting style works with what they're accustomed to. Like that's a big piece of it, like understanding how you parent, but also just like overall reliability and engagement as well.
00:43:30
Speaker
That's awesome. Great tips there. Red flags with sitters. Is there any? Yeah. Again, reliability. That's something we go through.
00:43:40
Speaker
And then also any safety concerns. It's something we discuss. Another thing in today's world that we really focus on is screen usage, whether that's personal or utilizing the TV while the child is in your care. Obviously a date night where the it's older kids, they get an hour of TV anyways before bed, that's different. But if you're working with you know a one and a half year old, obviously limited to no screen time would be ideal in making sure that they truly follow.
00:44:07
Speaker
with that i know for me when i've hired sitters before in the past and now that my teenagers are sitters number one i tell them don't be on your phone unless like it's an emergency when you're watching these kids what's your number one question every parent should ask babysitters that parents often forget i think that going through what to expect so i think that's one thing is like what's the day in the life parenting style, like if you have something very specific, whatever that style is, and you're trying to work with your child on something like those are things I think people sometimes forget because they're trying to meet and understand their personality.
00:44:45
Speaker
But then also like we want you to have that conversation so that there's no surprises when someone's coming into the role. One of the things we utilize and we really encourage families and candidates is to do a trial, have the kids hang with them for an hour, make sure like they understand your kids, understand your household.
00:45:02
Speaker
They have an understanding of ah the job as a whole, but really for part-time, full-time nannies and even summer care, temp care, have them come for couple days a week yeah and make sure that it's a dual fit so that they know what they're getting into and the family knows what they're getting into.
00:45:20
Speaker
After speaking with you both, I have to say, i wish i Use Sitter Connect. My kids are all older, so I don't really, you know. Right. But I wish I had you when my kids were younger. wanted to add to like anyone listening to Just for Moms, we're offering 10% off their first year of service.
00:45:39
Speaker
So if you come to us in your referral, we definitely want to help you get started and have that call, but we'll offer that discount for you. Great. And they can just mention Just for Moms. Exactly. Just for Moms. Perfect.
00:45:49
Speaker
Thank you. Well, thank you for having us. Have a great day. Bye. Bye.
00:45:56
Speaker
Callie had a great experience with Sitter Connect and I really enjoyed speaking them speaking with them as well. Pits and peaks every week we like to share. going to start off because I had a really fun peak.
00:46:08
Speaker
My daughters, teenagers that don't always like to be around me, like to be around me for once. And we walked in a runway show, ah Hope for Homes, ah Westport Fashionably event. And all the money goes towards Hope for Homes, the charity. We had to wear splash of pink outfits, get our hair done and our makeup. You walk the runway. it was really fun. I was shocked they wanted to do it. They were so cute. Thanks. I mean, it was, again, a fun time with them. And i don't always get to, you know,
00:46:42
Speaker
I feel like I'm not always liked. So they liked me that that Friday night. And it goes, ah again, it was a great organization and night for the community of Westport. so that's my peak. What about you, Charlotte? That's your win.
00:46:53
Speaker
I like it. Thanks. I have a pit and a peak, but there's sort of, dichotomous, so I'm just going to go with it. So my one of my kiddos, do you guys do invention convention at your school? Okay, we do too. The kids have to come up with some invention. they put It's like a science fair. And they've been sort of working towards this almost for years. like It's been on their brain.
00:47:12
Speaker
So my sweet kiddo, it was her time for invention convention, and she woke up in the middle of the night throwing up. so she had to miss it. I mean, she brought, I brought it in and her brother, actually, they pulled her brother to go and sort of present it to the judges.
00:47:28
Speaker
And I think she'll give it to her class. So hopefully this won't be one of those core memories, but ah I felt like you just know every year they would go to it and then be like, I know what mine's going to be next year. or I know what mine's going to be in two years. Anyway, that was a bummer.
00:47:41
Speaker
And then the peak was that I had another birthday party for a kiddo and she wanted to do like a craft project. And so we did a couple of crafts. I don't know if these kids had fun, but it was like, we survived.
00:47:53
Speaker
We made it through the party. The crafts were executed fine. Yeah. They ate. They had cake. It was like, you know, when you pull together a party and everyone leaves and you did it. So that's my peak.
00:48:04
Speaker
Yeah, we did it. Yeah, it looked fun. I kind of wanted to do the craft. I saw It it was cool. messaged her and I was like, she was like, ah my 13 year old self would have liked this. I'm like, Charlotte, my 37 year old self wants to make this craft right now.
00:48:16
Speaker
Yeah. my My DMs were like, share everything. My mom, my mom screenshotted Yeah, sent it to me, sent for next year for Annabelle's birthday. yeah She goes, go find out from Charlotte where to get all this stuff. I said, okay, thanks, mom. Good job, Charlotte. Link coming.
00:48:30
Speaker
yeah yeah Callie? um What is my, oh, yeah, I have a pit. So my um oldest is really into Magic Treehouse books right now, but he's not old enough to like read an entire chapter book.
00:48:42
Speaker
And so i'm I'm feeling a lot of mom guilt because I'm having a hard time finding time to read to him. because he'll, he'll listen to picture books. Like we read a picture books, obviously to the younger ones before bed. And he'll like, you know, look over my shoulder, but what he really wants is somebody to read them these magic tree house books.
00:48:58
Speaker
And we've bought some audio versions that works really great. But sometimes he just, you know, he wants mom to read him the book. So I'm trying to find like pockets of time, but I, I am feeling guilt that I'm like constantly like in a half an hour, I'll do it. And, you know, and and so I just am feeling guilty about that.
00:49:13
Speaker
Yeah, I get It's okay. There's only there' so many things you could do in the day, Callie. I know. I know. Anyways, thanks for tuning in. just Wait, you didn't share yours. I didn't get go. just Oh, you didn't?
00:49:25
Speaker
Oh, my gosh, Caitlin. Sorry. Sorry. Sorry. have a peek.
00:49:32
Speaker
Shame. Shame. Sorry, Caitlin. Please share your peek. I'm so sorry. It's fine. It's fine. man I have a peak. I'm so excited. I'm going to get my haircut this week.
00:49:45
Speaker
that is exciting That's up exciting. And everyone doesn't understand. understand like People are always like, your hair is so beautiful. And I'm like, no, it's just like, I have not gotten a haircut since August and it's so dead and I can curl it and it looks fine, but it's so dead underneath. It's all knotted and terrible.
00:50:01
Speaker
So I'm going to get a haircut. Um, I think on Thursday and might have to bring my toddler, but it'll be okay. so So just a trim. Um, yeah, a trim. I don't cut it short, but I need to do something with the front of my hair. So it might be a little, little different. We'll see. Okay.
00:50:19
Speaker
I do think so. Fashion Fashion show. Fashion show. Bangs. Bangs. No, don't do bangs. No, no. I had bangs. No. Caitlin does not look good with bangs. Okay. On that note. Yes.
00:50:32
Speaker
Now we're really done. Yeah. Just for mom's hair. Caitlin, Callie, Charlotte, and Megan, thank you for listening and tuning in this week. Leave us a review. Yes, please. Five stars if you feel the need. let's Thank you. And talk to you next. Bye for now. Sorry, Caitlin. I'm sorry.
00:50:51
Speaker
Tell us a little bit about Sitter Connect, please.
00:51:01
Speaker
a little bit about sitterconne please Yeah. So we are a two-mom-run company. We were struggling finding childcare. For Jess, she was looking for possible part-time nanny, thinking about going back to work in between her first and second child. And I was really looking for occasional needs care, just simply a date night that wasn't our parents, and really just trying to figure out how to do that. And we didn't love the current options that we had, different platforms. So We were like, let's just see if this is something we could do ourselves. We really see ourselves as a recruiting and matching company. We're not an agency. But again, it's two moms doing it. So we have found success in that. What's the process for placing nannies with families?
00:51:45
Speaker
How does that all work? Great. Yeah. Great question. We have a pretty in-depth process. So as a family, you're interested, know, we first have an initial call. We get to talk with the family, get to really know the ins and outs of what their childcare needs are. And so we talk with the family, we get to know all of their qualifications, you know, everything about the kids, their ages, the family dynamic, you know, what is the nanny going to expect coming into the role and what are their expectations of a nanny or a sitter that they have?
00:52:14
Speaker
And so then we have a matching process. And so once we get all their qualifications and they'd like to work with us, we have a great community of nannies and sitters that we've built over the last three years that we've been open now. I have three children. And if I was to hire Sitter Connect,
00:52:31
Speaker
One concern of mine would be, do you offer and also do background checks and screening? How does that work? Yeah, so that's a great question. So we do, for our vetting process, obviously we do a formal interview. And then we also do two to three non-relative child care references.
00:52:49
Speaker
but We get on the phone with references and we are trying to understand everything from safety concerns, reliability. What ages did they... you you know, care for? Were they better with an infant or were they mered more seasoned with the toddler?
00:53:02
Speaker
And then we do a Connecticut criminal conviction, both petting and full conviction check and a motor vehicle cold check. We do the national sex offender registry. We've added on the Connecticut DCF check for anyone over the age of 18. You know, we always like to friend them on social media, to also do a Google search.
00:53:20
Speaker
And then after that, we also offer a more deep dive background check through our attorney's office. And then you can also, as a family, utilize any platform that you're comfortable with. You can do everything from fingerprinting to you know,
00:53:34
Speaker
pull pulling full driving records. It's whatever your comfortability is. There's no mandatory and there's nothing that you can't do. And I love that you brought up the driving aspect because we talked about on the on our episode about how we all went through an example of our in-laws maybe putting ah child in the front seat Oh, okay. And, you know, we had to nip that right in the bud. And, know, like you were saying, I know that's very nerve wracking for parents to have a babysitter drive our kids around.
00:54:08
Speaker
Another thing i wanted to talk about is what's your, you know, your thoughts on fees and payment structure and how does that work? Yes. Yeah. So we're definitely very transparent on that. So our fees for our service, every family that works us pays us a membership fee to work with us. You're talking more about the hourly rates of candidates and the candidates really decide what their rates are.
00:54:28
Speaker
We help them if they're not sure, like, I'm not sure the going rate for this family with three kids versus the two kids in areas of Connecticut. You know, depending on where you are in the state, there are varying rates, you know, for one to two children, it could be a range of 20 to $25 an hour. and then in Fairfield County, that can go all the way up to $35 an hour, depending on what that position is.
00:54:47
Speaker
And so, you know, we really base it on location. We base it on, you know, the family itself and the number of children and the age of the children. So that is going to dictate the rate for this the nanny and the sitter. Last question, why should parents hire Sitter Connect versus a neighborhood babysitter?
00:55:04
Speaker
If you have a a specific event, a wedding, ah you know something to attend and they're not available, we provide multiple sitters that are familiar with your family. When families get started, some families, they don't have the luxury of living in a neighborhood where they can find a neighborhood babysitter.
00:55:20
Speaker
or they don't know of anyone around here because they just moved into the state. We're here to really guide them through the process, you know, do the heavy lifting, do all those pre-checks. The goal is to have you be with, not without care.
00:55:33
Speaker
And so care that you trust and is quality. That's really the difference is that you're just, you're getting a pool of ah great quality care candidates. So you can call on a Friday night because you want to have a date night with your husband and, and or you have a last minute work event that you didn't plan for.
00:55:48
Speaker
And it's really just having that network.