Ask:
I use two types of money saving babysitting....
I am a Stay at home mom with no family around, as a result sometimes during the day I need a sitter for my two preschoolers, but don't want to spend the money to pay one. I am in a babysitting co-op that saves me TONS of money. There are many ideas online how to start one (if someone wants more info on ours I can email you) and this saves in many ways, plus the other moms are my trusted friends. My kids look foward to "play" dates often and I don't spend a penny.
Secondly, me and two of my friends have begun to swap kids once a month on a Saturday night. For example on the first Saturday night of the month I have the kids from the other two families - then those two couples go out while I babysit all the kids and then I go the second Saturday night with my husband and the fourth Saturday night. Subsequently, the other couples watch our kids on the second and fourth Saturday nights that month. So we each have one night of babysitting in exchage for two date nights for FREE! Since I know in advance when I'm sitting I prepare inexpensive kid friendly foods, rent a movie from the library and make a fun night of it.
Erica
Answer:
I belonged to a babysitting coop when my kids were little. Mostly it was just a few of my friends and I but it was a godsend. We did this except we traded mostly during the day. For a while we did m-w-f trading. Each of us would take all the kids for about 2-3 hours including over lunch. Then we'd get two days a wk where we got a few hours off. The kids loved it too since they got to play with their neighbor friends.
Great suggestion!! Thanks
Answer:
Oh, yeah, a couple of friends and I do this during the day and sometimes at night, too. It does help.