When things started to really get going with my business I needed to find a suitable childcare solution to help me balance between looking after my son and completing my work. I was tossing up more traditional childcare options (Family Day Care and Childcare centres) with the idea of in-house care by either a Mother’s Help or Nanny.
I found that this was both a very interesting journey but one also that was filled with trepidation. I wanted to do what was best for my son and was concerned about the the effects of putting him into care for only 1 day a week. Most of the Family Day Care and Childcare providers I spoke to actually recommended that if I was going to put him into care (at his age) that I should do it for a minimum of 2 days a week to minimize the disruption.
At the same time I started looking into Mother’s Help or Nanny options. For me as I am working from home I preferred the idea of keeping my son at home with someone to look after him. That way he could keep his routine and have very little disruption.I found that Find A Babysitter site was really easy to use I liked the search criteria and details provided on each candidate that allows you to filter prospective candiates based upon things that are important to you. I also really liked the upgrade option to get SMS messagig to potential candidates (where you cans send inquiries to potential applicants phones via SMS).This is a really quickly build up a short list and start interviewing.What I found that was really useful was the service
Find a Babysitter (FAB) is an introduction and job posting web-site that helps Australian families find nannies and babysitters in an efficient an affordable way. It has over 30,000 current babysitters and nannies registered across Australia. Profiles of the carers online show details like their qualifications, experience, availability and hourly rates. Parents can email selected carers from this database. They can also use job postings on FAB to attract applicants.
I was very lucky and found my Nanny very easily and was very happy with findababysitter.com.au. From my experience if you are looking for a babysitter, Mother’s Help or Nanny then Find A Babysitter is worth a look … and also by doing so you are supporting another mumpreneur … which is also always good.
Photo by 99Club
3 comments
Hi Broni – good luck with being a WAHM and balancing work and parenting! Regarding your posting you might also like to check Babysitterdirectory.com.au. We are Australia’s only dedicated and free online babysitter and nanny directory. And unlike the other babysitter search facilities we charge no fees to parents (or babysitters) to search, contact or connect with babysitters and nannies. Yes, this means no subscription fees!Find out more at our website – http://www.babysitterdirectory.com.auAnn 🙂
Thanks Ann!I wasn’t aware of your website. It looks good too. I will definitely be coming and looking at your website if we need to get a new nanny.
No worries Broni! Like you we find that many parents are still not aware of our website partly because we are still quite young (launched June 2008) and partly because as we dont charge subscription fees it means that we don’t have access to a large marketing budget to spend on promoting the website in the media like some of the other search engines. We also prefer to let the site speak for itself and let an online community between parents/babysitters unfold and grow on its own volition! You can also follow us on twitter.com/babysitterdirec (As a fellow blogger you might like this mode of blogging that is if you’re not already using it!. Good luck and thanks!