Whether your work schedule changed, your nanny turned in her notice, or you simply need a last-minute sitter, searching for child care when you’re juggling a busy life can be time-consuming. If your sitter search needs to happen between managing your kid’s after-school schedules, keeping your career on track, and attempting to have a social life, here’s a little help to make it happen.
Step 1: Know what you need.
It’s tempting to hop online and start combing Sittercity for candidates, but doing a little bit of homework can help make your search quicker. Clarifying your family’s needs first will help you narrow down your options and find sitters who are more likely to be the right fit. Ask yourself these four questions:
What’s our family’s schedule?
- Are you looking for an occasional sitter, a full-time nanny or an after-school caregiver
- What days and hours will you need your sitter to be available?
- Do you have any occasional or last-minute needs, like weekends, date nights or business travel?
What qualifications am I looking for?
- Do you want a seasoned sitter with experience working with multiple families and ages?
- Or are you comfortable hiring someone who’s a little green?
- Do you want to find a sitter with a certain level of education?
- In addition to CPR training, do you want your sitter to have specialized skills?
What are my expectations of this sitter beyond basic child care duties?
- Will they need to drive your kids to after-school activities?
- Do you want them to start dinner on the weeknights or do light housework while the kids are napping?
- Are you in need of someone who can tutor your child in a specific subject or even just help out with homework?
Step 2: Start Searching
Now that you know exactly what you’re looking for in a sitter, Sittercity’s simple tools will help you speed up your search and find the right fit.
Narrow the candidate pool.
Sittercity’s new search experience allows you to narrow your results based on specific needs. Not only can you search by date, time and location, but you can also choose to search based on more specific criteria, such as hourly rate, years of experience, or whether the sitter has their own transportation. Our new search experience also features:
- More relevant sitters at the top of your search
- Easy access to important details like ratings and background checks
- Faster search result speeds
Give it a try!
Reach out directly.
Don’t miss out on a great sitter because you waited too long to contact her. Get full access on Sittercity to contact potential candidates directly, making for a smoother and faster process than waiting for the right sitter to respond to a job posting.
Conduct an interview.
No matter how fast you need to find a new sitter or nanny, nothing really gives you a sense of someone’s personality and fit for the job as an in-person interview. And now on Sittercity, sitter profiles now include an “interview” option so that you can schedule a phone or in-person meeting right through our platform.
When you’ve found a sitter you’re interested in, just select the date and time when you’d like to interview them and submit your request. They’ll have 24 hours to respond!
Make sure you check all the boxes by using our interview checklist to guide your conversation.
Hire a sitter with confidence.
With a premium account on Sittercity, you can run background checks, and read reviews and references, which means even if you’re short on time, you can be confident that you’re hiring trustworthy and dependable child care. Check out our Trust & Safety Center to learn more!
