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!

The Traveling Dad

If you are reading this you have probably figured out that I am a Dad.  I’m guessing from the title of this blog and probably this post…  But is that all I do?

Nope.  I’m not a stay-at-home-dad (SAHD).  I unwillingly go to work Monday through Friday. (Unwillingly = Needs The Money).  So what do I do at work?  I’m an engineer.  Woo Hoo! (Woo Hoo! = Boring To Most People)

I travel around to different factories and fix their machinery.  I do most of my work in Ohio (that’s where I live) and surrounding states.  Sometimes however I do have to fly to other parts of this beautiful country (that I never get to enjoy because I’m too busy hauling balls to/from the airport).

I went down to Tomball, Texas on Tuesday.  Unfortunately I had to spend the night down there and fly home this afternoon.

While the one day trips are not that bad (not that bad = I would rather be at home), I do miss Momma and my little man.  With one or two day trips I am able to keep myself pretty busy to keep my mind off of missing the family. If it goes over two days I really start to get home sick.

Here are some tips to help ease your mind while traveling for work and having to leave your kids and family at home:

  1. Take pictures with you.  I have a picture on my laptop’s desktop.  I have pictures on my phone.  There are pictures on this site.  I have pictures everywhere.  I see pictures of Ace and Momma and remember that I am traveling for them.  It gives the time away from home a bit more justification.
  2. Talk on the phone.  While you don’t get to see your loved ones, you do get to hear their voice.  Ace can not talk yet, but I always hear him in the background playing and making noise.  Sometimes Momma hands Ace the phone so that he can hear my voice, but most of the time he is more interested in chewing on the phone than listening to it. 🙂
  3. Keep Busy. This is probably the technique that I rely on the most.  As long as I keep busy I do not just sit there and swim in my own pool of misery.  Mind over matter.

Being the geek/dork that I am, I have considered getting a web cam for home and one for my laptop.  That way I and the family would be able to see each other.  I have not tried this yet, but I think it is a good idea that might get implemented in the near future.

I found a good post titled, How to Cope With Travel Away From Your Kids Under Age 5.  This post will help me in the future, for sure.  It is geared towards the Dad with kids that can talk on the phone and get more involved in what you are doing on your trip.  Check it out…

Until next time…I hope your travels are safe and short so that you can get back home to see your loved ones!

Hostinger