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by Claire ColvinLife is stressful enough without having to juggle a dozen things and still worry about finding a sitter.
For Moms with small children, it's all too familiar: a trip to the grocery store is cut short by a screaming two year old, a routine doctor's visit turns into world war three and every time you head for the bathroom there's a little knock as soon as you close the door. Kids are a wonderful gift and a full time, lifetime responsibility. We love them, but even the most dedicate Mom needs a break every now and then. Relatives and friends can only help so much, and there's always that one time when no one is available. A baby-sitting Co-op can change that.
As Gary Myers explains in his book, Smart Mom's Baby-Sitting Co-op Handbook:
Most Moms feel it is not cool to ask friends and relatives to watch their children while they do something like read a book at the coffee shop. But sometimes that is exactly what a mom needs. That is why a Baby-sitting Co-op is different. You can get a sitter for any reason - and a sitter is always available.
A Baby-sitting Co-op keeps track of time with a simple points system that allows Moms to earn sit time to use whenever they need it. Whether you plan to use the Co-op a lot, or only from time to time it's always a fair trade. It's not a complicated idea, but the outcome might just surprise you.
When a Baby-sitting Co-op gets going everyone benefits. Moms get more done, the children have new playmates, and life long friendships are often formed. Knowing that they have a certain amount of sit time available to them, Moms are able to better plan their time. Many Moms in Co-ops find that they have time to volunteer or to participate in their favorite activities again and can do so knowing that their kids are being taken care of by a trusted person in a safe environment.
A Co-op is founded by Moms that know each other and are comfortable taking care of each other's children in their own homes. As Moms of young children know, if you're taking care of two kids already, it's not much of a stretch to take care of one more - sometimes it even makes it easier as the children now have someone else to play with. What the Co-op does is organize the process. Keeping track of the points means that the sits are fair trade - no more guilt, no more favors. This frees Moms to use the sits for whatever they like - a evening out, lunch with a good friend, or even two hours to color your hair in peace.
The key to a successful Baby-sitting Co-op is a little organization. A secretary is needed to keep track of the points and centralize booking the sits. With a secretary in place, it only takes one phone call to get a sitter, no more phoning around and getting frustrated. After the sit, actual time is phoned in to the secretary who then notes the points and adjusts the accounts. Myers recommends rotating this position on a monthly basis so that each Mom ends up serving as secretary only about once a year. The actual time it takes to be the secretary is surprisingly small. It's also recommended that Moms register into the Co-op, providing everyone with important information like food allergies and contact numbers.
A great resource to help you get started is Gary Myers' Smart Mom's Baby-sitting Co-op Handbook. Written out of his own family's Co-op experience, Myers book offers a practical, in depth and step-by-step approach to forming a Co-op in your area and provides all the paperwork necessary to keep the Co-op running smoothly in the simplest possible way. In a surprisingly short amount of time, you can have a functioning Co-op in your area that will be a benefit to you, your children and the mothers around you. As soon as there are ten Moms in the Co-op, a sitter is always available - no more trying to hunt down a responsible teenager for a Friday night, no more desperate calls to your Mother. Finally even Moms with several small children can book time to do things for themselves and for their families in a little bit of rare peace and quiet.
With summer starting to wind down and September just around the corner, now is a great time to find out if there is a Co-op in your area. If there isn't and you know three other Moms that would be interested, Gary Myers' book is all you need to get started.
- Gary Myers lives in Washington with his children Kelly, Robin and Logan and his lovely wife Patty. Holding a Master's of Science degree he enjoys the challenge of re-engineering business activities into their simplest and most efficient form.
Smart Mom's Baby-sitting Co-op Handbook by Gary Myers, 128 pages, List price $14.95. Available through Tukwila Publishing (1 888 974-2667) which offers discounts on orders of four or more, also available online at Barnes&Noble www.bn.com Start up kit, including forms available free online at www.babysittingcoop.com