Baby sitting circles?

[SkiBunnyFlummy]

Anyone in one?

My mum used to do it when we were little.

She said all the women in local area were and the currency was tiddly winks. Everyone got 12 tiddly winks to start off with. Then if someone sat for you they got one tiddly wink an hour, 2 an hour after midnight. And everyone kind of did it. If you didn't help then I guess you ran out of tiddly winks (not that they are hard to get hold of) but anyway she said it worked really well.

The other thing they did was DAYS OFF, each week each mum would get a whole day off, her kids would go to someone else and she could do what she liked. Then on another day she would take someone elses kids. Again Mum said it worked really well. I asked her what she did on her day off and she said she closed the curtains and read novels all day!!

Anyone do that?

Oooooooooooh closing the curtains and reading novels all day.......yummy!!! If I could get off MN that is!

Message withdrawn

We have a babysitting circle here on the military camp where I live in Cyprus. We have a token system that works in a similar way but the tokens come in half hours too. It is time and a half after midnight and one hour for one the rest of the time. It is co-ordinated by a fab lady who organises coffee mornings every now and then so all the members can meet each other (supplying delicious homemade cakes too). It works really well for us. I only ask people I know to sit as this is what I am comfortable with and dd is still quite young. It works better than asking favours all the time as people get something from it and also you feel you can say no as there is a whole list of people that they can go on to ask.
I think it is a lifesaver as we don't have family to call on and we can't afford to pay someone all the time. I know my friends are sitting too and feel happy that dd would know who they were if she woke up. We get 15hrs worth of tokens at the beginning and we have to give those back at the end. If you don't have them to return you are asked to make a donation to a chosen charity for each hour.

Cooperoo, that sounds great. It must be difficult in the military because as you say no one can call on family to help. Also one half of partnership is no doubt away a lot.

I love the idea of it but my dp is away with work most of the week so evenings together are quite precious. I think I would find it difficult to repay the favours. Otherwise I would definately start one.

Yes, we have a points system. You start off with 30 points and "pay" 2 points per hour (ie 1/4 point for 15 mins)or 4 points per hour after midnight.

There is a "secretary rota" - all members take a turn with the book for a month. When you need a sitter you ring the secretary for that month (or if its short notice you ring round yourself). They phone round, starting with whoever has the least points.

Babysitting circles obviously not that popular then.....

I;m in one but don't use it as I just can't face doing any sitting to get tokens since most people want a sitter beyond 10pm, which is when I start thinking about sleep! (non sleeping 15mo!)

That sounds like a great idea, but I don't think there's one in my area... how would you know if there was?

I am in one. We use playing cards as tokens and everyone starts with 8. Each token is one hour and 2 tokens per hour after midnight. It started from a group of friends from an ante natal group. We now admit new members if they have two other members to propose/ second them (needs to be 2 otherwise the circle grinds to a halt). To book a sitter you contact them directly or circulate an email. Once a year there is a round up of who's got what tokens and hoarders are named/ shamed and made to go out. It runs itself and works quite well although you do tend to find that the same people always sit for each other and you can get logjams of tokens.

I'm in one and it's great. Otherwise I have to spend 5 to 7 pounds an hour for a babysitter. It's mainly made up of neighbours. I only ever have people that my children know well to sit. A quiet evening at someone else's house with a book/the paper on the odd evening is actually quite nice! I'd really recommend it if you don't have family near by. It saves having to rely on favours all the time.

I'm in one too, and it's really good. We actually have a social life together now! We use some tokens that someone printed out and laminated. 1 per hour, 2 after midnight. I quite like sitting for other people: a good reason to sit down and watch telly or read and not feel obliged to do the ironing. Everyone in the circle that I use is someone I know, mostly the mothers of my children's friends, so I feel reassured that they're in safe hands and they won't be too freaked out if they wake up (very rarely happens). It's saved us a fortune on teenagers and I'm much happier with it. If you can't find one already set up, do it yourself - you don't need many people to start, you just need to be willing to go out!

Ponygirl, I love "it's saved us a fortune on teenagers" That's tickled me

it's great to get some time off your child sometimes, i understand cos i hv a toddler of my own...but i dont know of any bbsitting circle here, besides my toddler wont be with anyone else except me, but i could do bbsitting for you for a discount, say £3. i live near east finchley. thx.

I am technically in one, but the only woman in the circle I would trust with my ds due to his allergies has gone back to work. I used it once when I had to give a course to new mum's and ds had had V&D and I didn't want to risk it. As it happened I ended up looking after her son as my return gig anyway, so I've never used the circle aspect.

Ours had 2 points for during the day and 1 point at night. As I like my sleep I would have prefered it the other way around. I also thought it was taking the p* coming home at 2am (as one of the mum's did). How would the babysitter be able to look after her own child after so little sleep?

Guess I am a pretty crap person to be in a babysitting circle...

I was in a Babysitting Circle for a while. It was much the same as others have described - you start off with a batch of tokens (ours gave you 15 hours).

A few things to think about:

You have to recruit from quite a wide circle - ours was through church, which often meant that everyone wanted to go to the same events, and there was no one left to babysit.

You need to keep recruiting - our one fizzled out because a critical mass of members outgrew it, and now have their own teenagers to babysit for them.

You have to have a token amnesty every couple of years. You also have to encourage those who never go out, to do so, otherwise they end up with all the tokens.

I'm in one too, with tiddly winks - 20 to start with, each one being a half hour. It has a written document underwriting it just to make it clear what it's about. Ours is all neighbours - we have a small defined community here but with easy access to a city, which i guess cuts down on how long people are out for. but i would always check how late back people are going to be, and I personally would either pay for babysitting for really late nights or use family... great if you have access to them i guess. our scheme is one token per half hour for every child out of bed, one token per half hour for all children in bed, and the babysitter must be walked home if they want it. Also people can refuse to accept a male babysitter if that's what's offered.

We're going out tonight. It's the BEST. You could try checking with your community centre if you have one, or maybe your local councillor, or a local paper?

Hi I posted earlier about our circle in Cyprus.
There are a few annual functions where we are that go on late (some till 6 am argh!) and we organise swaps for those rather than asking people to sit for tokens ie officers wives sit for junior ranks as the functions are always on different nights etc. I think it works so well here as there is a turnover of people every two to three years and because we are not in the UK and don't have family to turn to. I always go to sleep on the sofa if it is a late one anyway and would expect others to do the same in my house. We do rely alot more heavily on each other though and I find myself asking and doing alot more favours than I would in the UK (lifts to airports, looking after dogs etc etc) so that it is all part of the 'community' we have to create if you see what I mean.

I'm trying to set up a babysitting circle and was wondering what kind of rules you should have....can anyone give me ay ideas please?