Babysitting circle - tips

[scarecrow22]

Am trying to set up a babysitting circle among parents in my unusually friendly street. Was thinking everybody would start with eight tokens worth an hour each (maybe too many?). Any new members would have to be recommended by somebody in the original group (most of whom already know each other)... Has anybody got any other tips, suggestions for "etiquette", etc, before we get going?

Thanks

I set up a babysitting circle when I lived abroad after my DS was born and it worked really well - most of us were expats with babies around the same age and didn't have family around to babysit so we really needed it! Why don't you have a google and see what you can find re suggested rules? There are also some websites that you can register with and do everything through that. Also chat with the others who are going to be in the circle to see what they think.

I can't remember exactly what we did now (it was a few years ago now!) but off the top of my head we had things like the kids should be in bed/ready for bed when the sitter arrived, mum should be the sitter unless previous arrangement that it would be dad (only because generally the kids were more familiar with the mums). We set up an email group through google groups so we just had to send one email to get everyone (much easier than loads of different email addresses) and the job would go to whoever replied first to say they could do it. We had 12 hours of tokens to start with I think - 8 x 1 hr tokens and 8 x 1/2 hr tokens - 8 could actually be used up in a couple of nights out quite easily, before you had a chance to sit for someone else. We rounded up the time to the nearest half hour for the tokens. Time after midnight counted double. If someone wanted to leave the group they had to get back up to 12 hrs of tokens before they left (so no one could just get some free babysitting then leave!). Think that's all I can remember for now - hope some of that is useful!

Thanks bcmummy - some excellent ideas.

After midnight??!! ;)

We had one of these circles when we were expats too and generally worked quite well. The only problem we found was that we were all a bit too close ( lived on a compound) so sometimes we were all looking for sitter for the same event! Less likely to happen in the real world, but good to see if you can get some people in who have kids at different schools etc to yours?

We took it in turns to be the administrator for a 2 weeks at a time. If someone wanted a sitter they called the admin person who then called the person who was most "in debt" to the circle to offer them the chance first. We had rules about how much sitting "debt" and "credit" you were allowed at any one time.

Agree in advance what the rules are -ie have to specify in advance if it will be after midnight, agree what host has to provide ( we found some people practically provided a buffet spread, others had locked away the tea bags and then got arsy when it was clear you had been in their kitchen cupboards to stop yourself dehydrating!).

Mostly it worked pretty well.

As well as hour tokens, have some 1/2 hour ones.

DCs in bed. Double after midnight.

Set up an e-mail group for requests, seems easiest way to do it. (Also a spreadsheet with addresses, DCs names & ages to send round.)