Baby sitting club/exchange, does this exist?

[rrreow]

I live in central London, a friend from Lincoln was telling me when her daughter was a baby (25 years ago) she used to have a group of local mums (& dads) who belonged to some type of baby sitting exchange club. She would babysit and earn 'points', that she could then 'spend' on getting other people in the club to babysit for her.

Sounded like a really awesome idea as DH and I totally don't get enough 'us time' at the moment, but can't really afford to spend money on babysitters. We both work full-time so we haven't really built up any relationships with local parents.

Does this type of thing exist (in general) and/or do any of you know of any in central London?

Your local National Childbirth Trust branch may have a babysitting circle for members. It does however tend to be something that occurs between parents who know each other (like all attended the same anti-natal classes). Not sure how many other parents would want to do a swap with parents they don't know.

These things don't always last that long as it relies on parents being willing to babysit in return.

If you go to any type of religious group, you may find they have an informal arrangement between families who know each other through the group.