New Yorkers Embrace Babysitting Co-ops: Should You?

“As New York City challenges go, securing affordable, reliable child care is perhaps second only to scoring a cheap two-bedroom apartment with laundry, a bathtub and room in the hallway for a stroller,” writes Carole Braden this month in an article for Time Out New York Kids where she interviews me about babysitting co-ops.

Here is why babysitting co-ops are popping up more and more in the Big Apple, according to Braden:

At home in New York City, parents pinned in the child-care crunch are being more proactive, innovative and open-minded than ever before when it comes to seeking that haven of dependable, affordable, quality care.

Families who once employed full-time nannies are considering shared or nontraditional caretakers, or sometimes less-expensive early education and day-care programs; everyone is casting a wider net and keeping an ear to the ground—a Twister-like pose parents are all too familiar with.

Or they’re swapping diapering sessions with one another. That’s right: Babysitting co-ops, long more of a Midwestern phenomenon than a Manhattan one, are on the rise citywide. The groups, formed in tight communities or large apartment buildings, allow parents to babysit for other people’s tykes, earning points that they can later trade in when they need a “sit” of their own.

“In a babysitting co-op—as in most things in life—you have to give to get,” says Amy Suardi, a stay-at-home mother of three, blogger of frugal-mama.com and the founder of the Play Area Association babysitting co-op, which formed in 2008.

The 21-family group is based at Payson House, an Upper East Side building in which hospitals including New York-Presbyterian, Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center and Rockefeller University provide subsidized housing for medical residents (Suardi’s husband is a child psychiatry fellow at New York-Presbyterian).

Centered in the building’s indoor/outdoor play areas, the co-op uses the website BabysitterExchange.com to manage requests and offers to sit, as well as the points parents earn and spend. Suardi says that the group, whose monthly playdates and parties have boosted membership, has proved to be a real success, with parents joining in “You watch my kids, I’ll watch yours (for free!)” solidarity.

Hey, a night out for dinner and a movie isn’t so cheap these days. “It’s great,” Suardi says, “because you’re not paying for babysitting on top of the cost of your date.” Good child care? Nonnegotiable. Gratis, good child care? Now that’s priceless.

So what do you do if there is no babysitting co-op in your neighborhood?

That’s exactly the situation I found myself in when we moved to New York a year and half ago.  And I knew what it meant:  someone was going to have to start one and that someone would have to be me.

Before you grab the bull by the horns, let’s review the concept of a babysitting exchange.

What is a Babysitting Co-op?

A babysitting co-op is a group of parents who agree to exchange babysitting time.  Most co-ops work on some kind of point system:  you earn points when you watch someone else’s kid, and you spend points when someone watches yours.

Unlike a one-on-one babysitting swap, members are not obligated to return sits to a particular member.  Parents may fulfill and request sits according to their own schedule with anyone in the co-op.  For daytime sits, children are usually brought to the sitter’s house, and at night, the sitter usually comes to the child’s house.

A babysitting co-op works best when built within an existing community:  a tight-knit neighborhood or a church group, a school, apartment building, or mom’s group.  Many people love the idea of having trusted adults watching their children.

Alas, Still No Free Lunch

A babysitting co-op can work beautifully, especially when several families are committed to fueling the group’s activity.  As I mention in the Time Out Kids article above, the trade-off to free childcare is that you, of course, must be willing to provide free childcare for someone else.  That can mean having extra kids in your house, or being away from your own family on a Saturday night.

Sitting for other kids is often less a burden than it might seem:  at-home moms can transform daytime sits into a playdate; nighttime sits can be a chance to catch up on reading or movie-watching.  Plus, exchanging such important jobs with other families can really bring a community together:  fostering friendships and a feeling of belonging.

Make Friends, Save Money

With families often spread out all over the country, many parents need to create their own support systems.  Like passing around hand-me-downs or bringing dinner to a family with a newborn, a babysitting co-op is a valuable network that can fill essential needs while saving everyone a pretty penny.

Still think a co-op is for you?  In a series of upcoming posts, I’ll show you how to start your own babysitting exchange, step by step.  Subscribe to Frugal Mama to stay in the loop.

Have you ever participated in a babysitting exchange? What worked and didn’t work for you?

 

You also might like:

1. How to Start a Babysitting Co-op | Part 1
2. Reader Story: How We Started Our Own Babysitting Exchange
3. Swap Your Kids and Get More Time to Yourself
4. How to Start a Babysitting Co-op | Part 2
5. How to Get More Out of Your Babysitting Swap