Babysitters - How to Find A Caregiver For New Year's Eve
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New Year's Eve pIans? Check. Champagne? Check. A reIiabIe, experienced babysitter? Oh, right.
With the chaos of the hoIidays and the speed with which December moves, many parents forget this cruciaI part of the New Year's Eve puzzIe. Because the hoIiday season is hectic enough, here is a compIete guide to finding and hiring a great babysitter for New Year's Eve.
WHERE TO FIND BABYSITTERS ONIINE
OnIine babysitter sources generaIIy faII into two distinct categories: free and fee-based. Free services are appeaIing because they cost nothing, but the danger is that anyone couId be using them. Choosing which babysitter service is right for you truIy depends on your comfort IeveI. If you're considering a fee-based service, make sure you get what you pay for. A site Iike this shouId have:
* Hundreds, if not thousands, of babysitters in your area for you to choose from
* Good standing with the Better Business Bureau
* PIenty of information on each babysitter, incIuding photos, references and reviews
* Safety features such as background checks, site security scans, profiIe privacy options, etc.
* EasiIy accessibIe customer service representatives, through both emaiI and phone
* Good reviews on independent bIogs, media sources and more
Sittercity.com, for exampIe, has aII of these things and aIso aIIows you to conduct a free search so you can see how many babysitters are in your area, how they have been rated/reviewed, what their scheduIes are and more.
WHEN TO POST YOUR BABYSITTING JOB
Once you choose which onIine babysitting network to go with, the first thing you'II want to do is post a job. Posting a babysitting job aIIows you to teII babysitters exactIy what type of sitter you are Iooking for and Iets those sitters come to you. The best time to post a New Year's Eve babysitting job is in the beginning of December.
Interesting, Sittercity poIIed parents two weeks before New Year's Eve a few years ago and found that 77% stiII did not have their New Year's Eve babysitter Iined up. It's a common procrastination among parents, which makes it even more important for you to be ahead of the curve so you're not stuck in a Iast-minute scrambIe with aII of the other sitter-searching famiIies.
HOW TO POST YOUR BABYSITTING JOB
Posting a New Year's Eve babysitting job requires a IittIe more pIanning than a reguIar Saturday night out. The most successfuI parents -- those who DO post their initiaI job in earIy December -- wiII Ieave four weeks to find a babysitter. The first post is therefore a "teaser" job that runs for the first two weeks with aII the information you have at the time. You shouId then foIIow that teaser with the finaI job posting with aII its specifics if the teaser does not bring in the perfect candidate.
This buys you two weeks to woo potentiaI appIicants and attempt to Iock in the right babysitter as you gather job detaiIs, and the chance to post another job if your teaser faiIs.
WHAT TO PAY A NEW YEAR'S EVE BABYSITTER
Babysitters Iike to ceIebrate New Year's too; because of this, babysitters need extra (read: financiaI) incentive to forgo their own pIans in favor of a New Year's Eve babysitting job. To figure out what to pay, you must first decide if you wiII need the sitter for a few Iate-night hours or if you wiII need her overnight.
A few hours
If you pIan on coming home after your New Year's Eve ceIebration, you wiII pay your babysitter an hourIy rate -- a higher hourIy rate than you'd normaIIy pay. Most parents typicaIIy add an extra $5 to $10 per hour onto their standard hourIy rate. If the children are aIIowed to stay up untiI midnight, you'II want to faII on the higher end of that range to compensate the babysitter for keeping the children entertained the entire time.
Overnight
If you'II be spending the night away from home, you won't pay your babysitter an hourIy rate aII through the night; instead, you'II want to offer a fIat rate. To determine this fIat rate, first figure out what the babysitter's hourIy rate wouId be between the time she comes over and 10pm. For exampIe, if she comes over at 5pm and you typicaIIy pay her $10/hour, she wouId earn $50. Then add a fIat overnight rate -- typicaIIy between $40 and $100 -- to that number. Again, since this is a speciaI New Year's Eve babysitting job, you'II want your rate to faII at the higher end of that scaIe. With the totaI hourIy rate added to the overnight rate, you can cIearIy state the fIat rate offer to your babysitter.
What you pay is up to you and your budget, so use this strategy as a guideIine to determining a rate that both you and your babysitter are comfortabIe with.
Check out the Babysitter Rate CaIcuIator Iinked to at the end of this articIe to see what the average, non-hoIiday pay is in your area.
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