At home childcare

One of the reasons I started my business from home is that I wanted to keep my son at home, at least for the first couple of years. So in order to work, I hired a college student to nanny 18 hours a week, and later I hired my 16 year old niece to babysit twice a week after school. Between that coverage and my son's naps, I can typically get in 20-30 hours a week.

Unfortunately, last week my niece told me she has too much going on and needs to stop coming. It may not be permanent, but it is indefinite. And Julie, the college student, who watches Aaron is graduating in May and I need to find a replacement for her. I've been procrastinating on that, even though I know I want to have overlap beween her and the next nanny. And last week, she tells me that the company that interviewed her, and to whom I gave her a very good reference, wants her to start part-time before she graduates if they hire her. And they called her back for the "next step" so it looks like they are serious. Meaning I could soon find myself without any childcare in the near future.

So suddenly I need to find someone quickly. We lucked out with Julie. She worked at a local take-out place we frequented when I was pregnant and after Aaron was born, so we had a lot of contact with her before we hired her.

I started looking on craigslist last week, but when I only found a couple of people worth contacting, I looked around and found Care.com, which looks like a great website for finding childcare (or other types of household employees). I signed up for 1 month ($25 + a one time $15 registration fee). If it helps me find someone within the next month, it is worth the $40 I spent. They help pre-screen applicants by not only taking all their relevant information, but they even do phone interviews with their references which you can listen to (or read the transcripts of) before contacting those references on your own. And more importantly, they do background checks which you can access for free with your paid membership. It isn't an extensive background check, but they do verify that their SSN matches the name, they verify the address and they do a criminal background check. And another thing I like about this service is that I can contact someone through the website and they only see my first name and last initial - I don't have to reveal my phone number, e-mail address, or last name unless I am ready to interview someone.

Since Friday, I've spent hours looking at profiles, contacting people, responding to applicants to my job posting, and continuing to search on craigslist. Wish me luck!

When my release is late, you'll know one of the many reasons why.