Childsitters Wanted

Current Status

As of 2006-06-06:

• • the most urgent project is the beach trip June 12-17, with the England trip a close 2nd
  • still looking for more sitters, underage or not
  • we have found one sitter (Rachel) who is working out nicely but she is only available during certain times. She is also too young for any driving, and can't really cover overnights.
  • the kids' older brother, Mel, is home for the summer and can handle the overnights but not driving; he can also provide a little help and continuity during the day
• Search Keywords: childsitting, babysitting, babysitters

If you are interested, please contact us (email is best; if you do IM, that is a plus).

For more detailed information and background, see childcare needs.

The Kids

The kids are: Benjy (April, 1999), Zander (March, 1997), and Josh (December, 1992). Sometimes their older brother Mel is home from college, and he can help provide a little consistency and backup if we're not around. Josh is autistic, but generally very low-maintenance.

Specific Needs

Upcoming

• June 12-17: A couple of overnights anytime during this span would allow us to meet a friend at Myrtle Beach. (3 or 4 nights would be even better, if we can afford it.) Josh will be away at camp for the week and Zander has day camp, so we will need: (1) Zander drop-offs in the morning, (2) care for Benjamin during the days (he *lives* for one-on-one attention), (3) Zander pick-ups in the afternoon, and (4) care for 2 kids until bedtime, with food assistance (we can leave plenty of frozen stuff which they can microwave themselves, and/or we can buy ingredients to prepare). Mel will probably be around most of the time, and we will be reachable by cellphone when we're not actually out beaching.
• August: We're trying to get to England this summer (Woozle's dad is there for the summer), and August is looking the most likely at this point (we still have to get our passports, for one thing :-P). We'd like at least a week, preferably two weeks; 10 days is probably a reasonable compromise. Obviously we'll need someone (possibly more than one) to handle all the kid watching and transportation while we're away.

Ongoing

• Weekends are a good time for a relatively-low-stress sitting gig; although all three kids are usually home, Woozle is too (Sandy works in the afternoons Sat-Sun) and can give direction where needed but could definitely use the respite so as to be able to focus on work (Woozle works from home 7 days a week).

Long-term

We are also eventually working towards having a "stable" (our "babysitter army") of a few dependable people who can step in and manage the kids for stretches of a few days at a time while we do other things with our lives – anything from a single overnight (e.g. Woozle often needs to go on short trips out of state for various reasons, and Sandy can't come along unless someone else can take care of the kids) to maybe two weeks (e.g. the planned trip to England this summer).

Some regular care after school (not necessarily every day) or on weekends would be nice, if the cost is affordable. We have a sitter who often comes over for much of the day on Saturday or Sunday, but she is often not available and it would be nice to have someone who will just show up at a given time without my having to remember to email couple of days before (I tend to forget about it until the last minute, when it is often too late).

Ability to plan meals would be a special bonus, as this is one of the biggest stresses whenever we are trying to go out of town – making sure there is enough food, which requires figuring out in advance what food to buy (and checking with the sitter as far as what they feel comfortable cooking etc.).

Back Burner

• 2006-??: Woozle will probably need to be out of town for a court date sometime this year, though the date has not been set. If someone were available to at least help Sandy with managing the kids after school (until suppertime), that would be very useful; better yet would be if someone were available for overnights and pickups/dropoffs so Sandy could come along.