Babysitters-on-demand

Product name: Sitters Babysitting Service (http://www.sitters.co.uk/)

What is it?This service is a ‘broker’ for babysitters – connecting families in need of babysitting with local individuals with various degrees of childcare experience. The customer interface is very similar to the way we are used to booking meeting rooms at work – you just insert your booking into a calendar and the system starts processing it for you. Families have the opportunity to create a ‘wish-list’ of babysitters and it is also possible to block babysitters who you don’t like

Why did it catch my attention?Far away from our family and with a limited support network in London, we were looking for a way of finding reliable people to look after our little one so that we could get some ‘own time’. Because my husband travels a lot with his work I also sometimes need babysitters for very short timeslots during daytime to be able to do things like going to the dentist or the hairdresser

How old was my baby when I bought it?The first time we tried Sitters was for my birthday party when my son was 3,5 months old

What value does it add for us?It gives us flexibility and because Sitters take on the responsibility for staffing your timeslot it saves the time that I see many other parents around me spending on calling around to or getting last-minute cancellations from their babysitters

What does it replace?- Staying at home instead of getting out and/or bringing a baby along to places where it gets increasingly difficult to bring him the older he gets
- Creating and managing your own network of family, friends, friends’ nannies etc.

How did my baby respond to it?We have had mixed experiences: one great lady who had children herself, one professional nanny with limited experience of small babies who did not respond very well to my son and one lovely young student who quickly became my son’s favorite playmate!

How much does it cost?£13,85 per quarter for being registered in their database, a £4 fee per booking and £7 per hour that you pay directly to the babysitter

Can I see any drawbacks?Not being able to meet the person before they come to your house to look after the most valuable you have. It is furthermore important to be aware that Sitters is a national call center service and that the people you talk to don’t personally know the sitters they book for you. They unfortunately don’t have a reliable overview of which sitters that have experience with your children’s age band – hence why we got a person without experience with babies to look after our 3 month old son (and we had to leave the restaurant before we had finished the main course)