Babysitter Phone Tag?

Not any more! There is a new service on the web called WillUSit that automates this process for you.

willusit

Many parents have a list of babysitters they can trust. When you have plans for Saturday night do you go down this list and call every person on your list to find an available sitter?

WillUSit makes this job less time consuming.

Here’s a quick excerpt from their website:

Calling a long list of sitters and leaving messages, waiting for call backs, finding more sitters to call, etc. For those times when you really need a sitter you can expand your search to include you friends list of sitters. You can search for sitters based on several profile criteria including rate, age, experience, location, etc.

Here’s how it works:

  1. You create an account on WillUSit.com
  2. You add all of your sitters’ names and contact info.
  3. When you need a sitter you do a search and a list of sitters meeting your requirements is shown.
  4. You select which sitters you would like WillUSit to contact and press “GO”
  5. WillUSit will call (or email or text message) every sitter with the time and date they will be needed. WillUSit goes down your list until a sitter is found and then connects the both of you via phone (or email) to make arrangements.

I think this could be a very valuable resource for someone with multiple baby sitters that they trust to watch their children, but not a bunch of spare time to call each and every sitter to be told “No” by the first ten they call.

My description does not do it justice. Please go to http://willusit.com and watch the flash animation on the home page to see exactly how it works.

Sign up and test it out for FREE!

Daycare Update – It’s Hard Letting Go

Well, after being afraid of taking Ace to daycare (see previous two posts about this here and here), I have finally loosened up a little bit. He went to daycare three days this week. The first day was a bit rough because he went to the doctor in the morning and got his shots, so he was not the happiest baby in town.

The last two days this week at daycare were better. It seems as though he is doing OK sleeping on his back. He doesn’t sleep nearly as much as if he was at home, but he is probably busy playing! They have tons of toys and things for him to get into and explore.

The girls that watch Ace at the daycare are really nice. They are always very helpful when I go to pick Ace up after work. Every day I always ask them if Ace was good. Every day they say yes. However, comparing Ace to some of the crybabies that are in there… if Ace threw the most horrible fit I have ever seen, they would probably think it was mild.

So, it is really hard to tell how he is doing. He doesn’t eat or sleep much there. The daycare said this is normal for the first few weeks until he gets adjusted to the environment and the new schedule.

I’ve been trying to look for behavioral changes at home and can’t see anything major. I don’t want him to pick up the habit if crying over every little thing like some of the other kids there. He is always so happy and I want him to stay that way! We worked hard at keeping him a happy boy!

I guess only time will tell. I will have to accept the fact that I am not going to be able to control every aspect of his life, especially as he gets a little older. I just hope that I can teach him to know what is right and wrong and to make good decisions for himself. I think that he will model his way of thinking and his behavior around my wife and I’s thinking and behavior. I think this is a good starting point for the long journey ahead. We have given him a good strong base to stand on for the past six months. It’s time to let loose…just a teeny-weeny bit…

Babysitter / Daycare Dillema Update

In follow up to a previous article…

Well, we have decided to go with the Daycare option. It is more expensive than I expected though. They want $220 for a four day week! WOW!

I went this morning and took a tour of the daycare and watched Ace play with the other kids for a while. He did pretty good. He has never really been around other infants. He is very self entertained, so maybe this will make him more sociable…

I am not 100% comfortable with him being there, but I am just about as confident as I can be sending him into an unknown environment with total strangers to spend the day…

One thing that I think will be a big problem is Ace’s sleeping. He has never slept good on his back. I know it is a SIDS risk to allow them to sleep on his belly, but it is the only way he sleeps comfortably. He will fall asleep on his back if you are feeding him, but will only sleep for 20 minutes or so before waking up.

The daycare will not place him on his belly to sleep! We can not even sign a waiver to allow the daycare to let him sleep that way! He is going to be a screaming lunatic from being so tired. He cries whenever you lay him on his back even when he is in a perfectly good mood.

They said that we need to work with him to get him to roll from his back to his belly. This way he can roll himself over and then they can let him sleep that way. Whatever…we’ll see how this goes…

I think he will do great…except for the sleeping on the belly thing. Hopefully the daycare workers do a god job with him!

Babysitter / Daycare Dilemma…

Ever since my wife went back to work after her maternity leave ended, my son, Ace, has stayed during the day with one of my wife’s friends. She is awesome! She has a daughter of her own and treats my son like he was one of her own.

She charges a reasonable rate, $100 per week, and has been very flexible. My job requires me to travel frequently. I never get home at the same time, and sometimes I do not come home. She has never had a problem with me picking him up early or waiting until later when my wife gets off of work.

The babysitter has always worked at Walmart, but has worked at night. Recently her schedule has changed and she has to be at work at 5 PM. This is troublesome. I get off at 5 and it is a good 45-60 minutes to her house. There is no way for me to pick up my son before she can go to work. So something has to change…

In the meantime my wife’s grandma is watching him, but this is only temporary.

I have a hard time trusting just anyone to watch Ace. Ace is an easy baby to watch. Her rarely cries and will entertain himself for the most part. However, he has always had one-on-one attention. There has not been a single second in his life that he has been neglected…and I wish to keep it that way!

What options do I have?

I could take Ace to a day care where he would be among other children of all ages. Would he get the attention he deserves? Are these people qualified to even watch kids? Or are they merely people off the street that seek out a paycheck?

Day cares are scary to me. I prefer to have someone I know watch him. I just makes me feel better. I don’t want to have to worry about his welfare while at work.

Everyone I know that I would trust to keep Ace during the day works. They are not available. We’ve tried convincing both Grandmas to just retire and we’ll pay them to watch Ace, but they can’t afford it.

A few friends have referred people that watch kids, but this is even scarier to me. At least at a day care there are other people around. A private baby sitter that I do not know and trust could do anything behind closed doors. How do i know that they do not have anger problems? How do I know if their husband and friends that may be visiting the house are trustworthy?

This whole thing scares the living hell out of me!

The third option is for my wife to quit her job and stay home with him. Don’t get me wrong. I would quit my job and stay home with Ace every day! I would love to be a stay at home dad! However, since I bring in the majority of the money in our household this is not an option.

Even my wife quitting her job would be extremely hard on our financial situation…if not impossible. My check is enough to pay the bills without much left over. Could we survive on that little bit? I really doubt it…

Does anyone have any suggestions? Have you had good or bad experiences with day cares? How about private babysitters? This is driving me nuts!!!

Hostinger