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Original poster

Babysitting Circles

6 replies

Catbert · 01/10/2004 00:02

Hallo all... Does anyone have experience of a good babysitting rota / system with a group of people that is tried and tested. I feel my own group would not abuse any system in place, but always best to have the "rules" clearly stated up front jic - and I'm not sure how to start... Someone mentioned a "vouchers" system? Advice please? Thanks awfully

OP posts:
SueW · 01/10/2004 00:09

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This has been withdrawn by MNHQ at OP's request.

smileyragdoll · 01/10/2004 08:12

I've heard of system where they used tokens out of a ludo board game and the different colours represent differnt worth ie fri and sat night more expensive than a weekday night and that way everyone starts with the same allocation of nights.Good luck

smileyragdoll · 01/10/2004 08:22

just remembered they also agreed not to sell their tokens to each other, as i think this can cause problems

mrsflowerpot · 01/10/2004 09:42

we did tokens representing 1/2 hour slots, and we had a spreadsheet which got updated and mailed around any time anyone earned/paid out vouchers (we took it in turns to look after that). That way we could see who had the fewest vouchers left at any time, and the idea was you asked that person first so they had the chance to earn some back. We also had a rule that you couldn't leave the circle unless you had a certain number of vouchers left (I think it was half of the original number), so that nobody could abuse it by never reciprocating and then leaving. It did work well but our circle has sort of dwindled to 3 with people moving and stuff so now we just do it on a 'return a favour' basis.

elliott · 01/10/2004 09:50

there have been some previous threads on this if you do a search. I think if you want to formalise things it is helpful to write down some guidelines - I think this is particularly helpful if you want to keep the circle going as people leave and new ones that you may not know so well join.
I'm part of a circle that has been going for well over 10 years, and when I joined it was very clear what the ground rules were - basically the kids are supposed to be either in bed or ready for bed; we pay double tokens before 7 and after 11.30; you start with a certain number of tokens and if you leave you need to pay those back.
I guess the thing is to find a balance between flexibility and formalisation that fits your particular group. Good luck.

Original poster
Catbert · 01/10/2004 09:51

Ooh - thanks. Some good tips here.

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