Childsitters Wanted

• Status (2006-03-19):
  • 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.
• Search Keywords: childsitting, babysitting, babysitters

Introduction

We are Sandy and Woozle (officially known as Nick), two close friends trying to raise 3 kids (one of them autistic). We are somewhat overwhelmed by the responsibilities of just being ourselves, most of the time, and having to raise any kids at all – let alone three, let alone these particular rather high-energy units – is... well... even more overwhelming. (The kids are Sandy's from a former marriage, and it's a long story).

We are also both phone-phobic, so we're trying to minimize the amount of phone calling necessary. If you are a potential sitter who is comfortable making arrangements via email, IM, or IRC, that is a definite plus. :-)

If you are interested, please feel free to email us: sitters2024@hypertwins.org. Calling 401-9424 is also an option (receiving calls is a lot easier for us than making them). More contact info

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.

Overview

We need childsitters for a number of different reasons:

• Someone to watch the kids when we need to go somewhere when they aren't all in school (with 3 kids, each at a different school, this happens on a regular basis)
• Someone to watch the kids when we don't actually need to go somewhere but just want to have some uninterrupted time to concentrate on our work (most days after 4pm and all weekend)
• One or more autism specialists ("qualified" and otherwise) to help with Josh's training (we may be able to get some services from the city to help with this, but so far we keep running into obstacles every time we try to get this started; see Josh and The System)

Specific Needs

High-priority

• 2006-05 (exact dates not yet known) We need to drive to Indiana to pick up Mel, and all Mel's belongings, from Earlham College (he's graduating), and we will need at least 3-4 overnights and associated pickups/dropoffs. We had tentatively arranged with the kids' grandmother to cover this, but something came up and she is unavailable, so this is now getting kind of urgent.

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).

Upcoming

• 2006-03-27 - 31: Benjamin and Zander will be at loose ends pretty much the whole week (all three kids are out of school, but Josh has spring break camp the whole day) and someone to keep them busy during some of this would be useful. (It looks like Rachel will be able to cover some of this, but this still looks like a good opportunity for new sitters to meet the kids and learn the ropes while we're just doing errands and stuff rather than being out of town overnight.)
• 2006-04: Woozle will probably need to be out of town for a mediation session sometime soon, though a 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.
• 2006 - Summer: We're trying to get to England sometime between June and August (Woozle's dad will be there during that time), for at least a week, preferably two weeks. Obviously we'll need someone (possibly more than one) to handle all the kid arrangements while we're away.

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).

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.).

Getting a bit technical

This part may be just baffling to most people (hopefully it won't), but being a programmer I tend to think like this so feel free to ignore this section if it doesn't make any sense. I'm hoping that it will help me figure out what we need.

Requirements which come into play depending on the task:

• Josh: must be comfortable with possibly needing to clean up the posterior of an autistic 12-year-old after he uses the toilet
• driving: must be comfortable driving a minivan with up to 3 kids (if Josh is included, then you have to be prepared to deal with the possibility of Josh being in a mood and attempting to whack Benjamin; fortunately this comes up less and less) and picking them up from various locations. (They almost never get picked up from any of the same places, so you always end up managing two of them while picking up a third.)
• overnight: must be able to put kids to bed (read bedtime story) and stay in the house overnight with them (alternate locations are a possibility, if Sandy approves them)
• daytime solo: must be able to prepare meals (no serious cooking required; reheating of frozen dinners, making sandwiches, etc.)
• daytime assist (basic sitting where we are available for consultation): much like regular sitting; we can handle Josh cleanup if needed, and can also make suggestions for meals & snacks

Part of the idea is that if we can't find one person who is able to cover all requirements for a given task, we might be able to cover the various parts of it with different people – e.g. one to do the driving, someone else to cover afternoons & dinner, and maybe someone else for the overnights; whatever is needed.

Task	Requirements	Description
overnight trips	overnight daytime solo Josh (probably) driving (probably)	Sandy & I out of town for about 36 hours, one overnight. Reachable by cellphone (except for England trip, but we will still be reachable by phone for that).
watching kids so we can work	daytime assist	This is just so we don't have to get up at random intervals to attend to the kids. Woozle does work which demands a certain amount of concentration, and breaking that concentration costs more than just the 5 minutes it might take to make Benj a sandwich or whatever. We also might want to go on errands around town, but can be reached by cell phone should an emergency arise

(This list is a work in progress)