Has Anyone Used Sittercity or Care.com

I use care.com to advertise myself for tutoring and also when I was thinking of becoming a nanny.

This website is free and allows you to either advertise a need or look for someone to fill that need.

They make their money by offering inexpensive background checks and by having people who advertise themselves to upgrade to a better profile...but I haven't needed to do this.

I would advertise your need for a babysitter/nanny and be very specific of what it is you are looking for. The website will text message those interested in such jobs and you will get responses fairly quickly. I would only interview someone who has a background check and has references.

Hope this helps!

I used care.com trying to look for a home day care and like the other posters said, I got tons of responses for nannies, occasional daycare, etc. - what I didn't want. The one daycare provider I interviewed ended up being a smoker and therefore not licensed (nice woman but would have "grandma mind the kids while she went out to smoke"!) I also got some 17 year-old teen mom's offering to watch my little one - she should be in school! Anyway, I thought I was specific and I know friends who got good results but you'll have to do some serious cherry picking to get the best.

I have used Sitter City for 2 years. I probably wouldn't have needed to keep up my subscription, but the first time around I only ended up interviewing and hiring 1 candidate. After that, I didn't need a new sitter for a long time, but last July started the search again. I am very happy with the results, and especially like that you can block certain members who you may not have hit it off with, or who you know are not qualified for your job posting, but have applied anyways (sometimes multiple times.)

The only bit of caution, it seems that many of the sitters don't read the job postings carefully, so you might end up getting quite a few responses from people who are looking for full time nanny positions. Best way to handle it, be very direct in the ad and specify what exactly the position is, and what it is NOT. You can also specify something like, please reply only if you are within a 30 min drive. I expect you will get a TON of replies, and then you can have your pick of the best ones to interview. (I find that it's better to ask for references before the interview, so you know whether or not an interview is worth your time.)

I've used Sittercity and found decent people several times. I actually am currently using 2 people from that site, and I found our nanny on GoNannies.com. I think it definitely makes a difference in how you word your ad- I described our family, not just the job, which I think attracted certain people. And I recently added that I preferred someone who lived within 10 miles. It's shocking how far people are willing to drive to babysit! I narrowed it down pretty quickly based on who was responsive and professional. Also, people who are already working with kids (through preschools, daycares, etc.) probably have LiveScan so that's another layer of background check.

I serve as a parent team for a new online upcoming company, CareNovate.com that will offer not only child care services but pet, office, home, educational and more. I like it because they have a diverse parent team (includes social workers, direct care workers, retired nurses, etc) that will approve all applicants and most care givers will have background check services via the site. They are to be cost effective, in other words cheaper than the rest while maintaining quality

The site will be launching later this year and i think it will be awesome
check out it http://www.carenovate.com or http:www.carenovate.com/blog
http://www.facebook.com/cnovate

N. Ogum