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A Babysitting Co-op that Sticks

To a parent with toddlers or preschool children at home, a trusted babysitter is a treasure. Often, in neighborhoods with plenty of young families, eligible babysitters are in high demand. In addition, babysitting costs can add up quickly.

How can parents devise creative child care plans, so that they can occasionally enjoy afternoons or evenings out?

In many neighborhoods, where young families abound, parents have pooled their parenting skills by forming babysitting cooperatives. These co-ops, or babysitting exchange networks, allow parents to care for one another's children in turn.

Some subdivisions and neighborhood associations offer complex cooperative child care programs, including printed regulations and possibly elected directors. Others have simpler systems.

When my children were young, I enjoyed participating in a small, but extremely effective, babysitting exchange network with a group of friends in my neighborhood.

Practically a Playgroup

The simplest babysitting exchange network minimizes administration and complication. For example, our system employed a very basic playgroup model.

In our particular case, all of the participants in our babysitting exchange network happened to be stay-at-home-mothers.

First, a group of mothers and children met at a local park to discuss the babysitting cooperative plan. Each mother received twenty plain craft sticks (like popsicle sticks), which were marked with a rubber stamped symbol.

Every Friday afternoon (from 3 pm to 6 pm), we would have playgroup. The program would rotate among our homes. Two mothers would staff the playgroup each week. The others would drop their kids off at playgroup after naptime.

During the three-hour babysitting exchange session, the children would enjoy playtime, a basic craft (such as crayons, play-clay, bubbles or sidewalk chalk), and a snack. The cost for each session was one printed popsicle stick per child.

Of course, each mother would earn four popsicle sticks for serving as playgroup staff. Each mother was responsible for keeping track of her own popsicle sticks and stepping up to serve regularly.

Our babysitting exchange system worked smoothly and sociably for several years. It was easy, and no neighbor was required to shoulder administrative responsibilities.

One of the secrets to our babysitting exchange program's success was probably our preexisting friendships. Even before we started our playgroup, we were socializing together and taking field trips with our children. The babysitting co-op simply made it official and efficient.

Learn more about this author, Linda Ann Nickerson.
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