Moms of Little Ones, How Often Do You Have a Babysitter?

Pretty much never... I have 3 kids (5, 22 months and 6 months) and I'm pregnant with my 4th so it's safe to say that I can almost never find a babysitter. The only time I can get one is if my kids are sleeping and my mom is off work but that's not often.

Maybe 4 times a year. No family, just 2 trusted sitters that sit for all my friends for many years.

We've never had a babysitter or a date night alone in my son's 3 years. Our date nights involve him, or we have them at home once he's in bed. No one I know, has to use a babysitter. They use their parents. My parents are younger and still work full time (on the weekends, as well,) and my in laws are too far away/not in great health.

Since no one I know uses sitters, we have no references. I could never leave my child with a stranger, who has no history with anyone familiar...so it is what it is. We make do, and it hasn't had any negative impact on us.

Almost never. Once in a while when my inlaws visit we go out for a few hours...but not everytime they are around. We go out maybe once every 6 months....

We really don't and our kids are 4 and 6. I have only one person that I trust for that and she was diagnosed with cancer recently so she has to concentrate on her recovery. Before that though, she would watch the kids extra for me a few times a year for us to go out to dinner...

I'm not sure how often we go out, but when we do either a friend of mine watches the kiddo, we trade off I watch hers sometimes and she watches mine sometimes, or my MIL watches her. Maybe once a month or so. When I go out, it's usually without my husband and kid. He likes to play his game with his friends and I'm a bit more social.

We try to get out on at least a couple dates a month and have four dependable babysitters-- we use who is available (which is why we have four) and they are all very well known to Kiddo. Two used to be caregivers, one is a neighbor girl and one is a dear teen friend who adores him.

Lately we've been hiring sitters more often, but for functions Kiddo shouldn't attend. Parent Night at the school; a trip to the vet for our ailing cat; my husband's upcoming 50th birthday, which will be a cocktail party.... all of these go better without a little person piping in. And while one or the other of us could have done the Parent Night or vet, it's good for my relationship with my husband for us to do these things together.

I am single, so I don't have to worry about date nights, but I do have other stuff going on where I go out every couple of months and need a sitter. Before my in home sitter moved out of state, we would trade off watching each other's kids every so often. I generally only did it if there was something special going on during the week, like a concert or something. Otherwise I would try to plan special events when my son would be staying with my parents for a week. Now I use a drop in daycare if I need a sitter. My son likes it there because they have video games and a bouncy house. I like it because I pay far less than I would a sitter ($5 an hour, less if you buy hours in bulk) and I don't have to worry about cancellations. There is a little less flexibility in that they close at midnight and you have to drop the kids off, but it's not been much of an issue for me.

Weekly. It was a priority to us to not lose our relationship when our world became focused on our daughter.

In the beginning, we had a Grandmother type sitter and around 18 mths old, I had a couple of high shcool girls. Fortunately for us, these 2 families I worked with became great friends, they had 3 daughters and as one would move on to college, the next sister would step in to babysit.

We spent about $80 cash a week on a sitter but it was money well spent in our opinion.

Our daughter is 17 now and she babysits.

My MIL comes to our house about once a month to babysit. We usually put the twins down to bed and then go out. She stays the night, so we don't have to rush home. However, we are usually home by 11 anyway. We could get out more as we have plenty of family that is willing to babysit, but with three kids and my husband working 60+hours a week, we are just too tired to go out. But we do try to have dinner alone once a week for a date night at home.

We're almost the same as you. Probably averages to once a month, but sometimes it can be 2-3 months between dates.

Not often- we have 5 kids... the last time we were out alone was when I had our 10 mo old... that is during the delivery. The kids were with grandparents. The time before that - was when I had my now 2 yr old... we did drop the kids off a few ours before I was going into the hospital & had dinner together. Hoenstly I don't remember the time before that... my kids are 8 yrs, 7 yrs, 5 yrs, 2 yrs & 10 mo.

We go out once a week. My husband's partner has a 17 yo daughter that we use for babysitting. The baby is in bed by 7 so we try to leave at that time so she really only has to watch our 5 yo

We have family nearby who will watch our boys whenever we ask. We try to go out without them once or twice a month.

Hubby and i go out every other Monday and his 15 year old sister watches our kids and we pay her. We used to go every Monday (did this January-June) but it got to be too much because we were gone every Monday, daughter had gymnastics every Wednesday then hubby works Fri-Sun so we were only home 2 nights a week.

My parents usually watch the kids overnight every other month and my mother in law usually comes to spend the night at our house on the weekend and I go to a girlfriends to sleep over (if I'm drinking) every other month.

Well, we haven't been out since February! We have family near by, but they are just too busy to babysit, and we can't afford to pay a babysitter, so we just don't go out all that much. Our time together is on Friday's when the kids are in school and I'm off work. My husband works grave shift, so he sleeps during the day but we do take some time on Friday to have some time together