Home Has anyone tried Care.com?

[jewelz617]

Trying to locate a sitter for my daughter... for the first time ever. I''m very nervous about this, but I''ve been home 2 years now and want to ease back into the work scene on a part time basis. I am thinking about maybe posting an ad on Care.com, but would need to pay for a membership.

The idea of finding someone online is somewhat frightening, but when I was browsing the profiles, I did find a few people who looked very promising. Has anyone ever tried this site? Thoughts, opinions?

 

[MayFlowers]

I don't really post in this forum much. I mostly hang around LIW, but I saw your thread and thought I would give you my two cents.

I am a member of Care.com as a sitter for my area. I haven't gotten a job from any of the families yet, due to schedule conflicts. But, a few of my friends (we are all Elementary Education majors in college) have gotten great jobs from the website. I haven't heard anything negative about Care.com yet. I haven't browsed through the babysitters profiles on there, but I'm sure most of the people on there are reputable.

Because it is online, I would suggest that you interview the candidate(s) at a local coffee shop or restaurant and just take normal precautions for meeting a stranger. I just think it's safer this way. Oh and if for any reason you don't feel comfortable with the person, no matter their credentials, I would not hire him or her. It's definitely important that you feel 100% comfortable and trusting that this person will take care of your daughter. But, I definitely think that there are some great babysitters on care.com who would be delighted to watch your daughter. So, as long as you are careful to interview the person and make sure that you are comfortable with him or her, I say go for it!

ETA: I would ask for references from the sitters previous families and jobs as well.

 

[TravelingGal]

Found my current nanny on care.com. With a bit of gut instinct and lots of luck, we got a great nanny. I just love her! Amelia''s speech has really taken off since she''s been with us. She''s constantly engaging Amelia and is very responsible. She''s a professional nanny and takes her responsibilities seriously.

I only interviewed one person. Met her and I knew.

I''ve read some past reviews about care.com not easily allowing you to cancel. I had no problems with it, but just in case, I used my credit card''s security feature which generates a CC number for online shopping and put a limit of one month''s Care.com fee on it so there was no way they could auto renew me.

 

[MustangGal]

I also found my daycare lady on care.com. I interviewed 3, two from that site, and we''ve been with her for a year. She takes in 4 kids, all of which I think found her on that site.