Finding babysitters

[GinAndTonic]

Those of you with babysitters: how did you find them? My son has been kicked out of daycares, so I need someone to come to my house one day a week so I can get a break. We have a great sitter now, but she's moving soon.

In this most recent hunt, I've tried:
craigslist
sittercity.com
my local university
my local community college

No luck so far. Any suggestions? My family all have their hands full, and my friends... well, they're not going to help.

 

[Lulu]

We have used one of the assistant teachers at my children's daycare. She knows their personalities and my kids already know/like her. Are there any teachers at your son's former daycare whom you feel he was close enough to? I also don't know what we are going to do when she is gone; she'll be graduating college soon and moving on. We already lost an earlier babysitter to college last year. Lots of turnover, and with high-needs-kids, it is a **** shoot. Let us know how the hunt goes.

 

[SRL]

Have you called the education department of the local universities directly or posted an ad on their bulletin boards?. Sometimes you can find great babysitters who are training in the areas of special education, early childhood, or psychology who would like babysitting with a challenge.

 

[GinAndTonic]

Weird! Within a few hours after posting that, I saw two good (I hope) sitters on craigslist. Maybe it'll work out after all.

 

[Shari]

I replied to your other post with a sitter idea, but I'll put it here, too.
My difficult child gets along better with pretty, active teenage girls. We have a work study program here in our high school, so I called our local high school guidance counselor, and she gave us 2 or 3 good sitters over the past couple of years. They were all planning to go on to college for some sort of education, they were with him 1-on-1, they went to the park, to play place, they had energy to keep up with him, and for relatively short periods of time (even up to 4 or 5 hours) they worked out great. And difficult child loved them. He still refers to them as his girlfriends (tho we don't encourage this).

 

[SRL]

Also, another great source is homeschooled teenage girls. Often you can find someone who has younger siblings and does a great job.

 

[Dara]

We happened to get very lucky. Sammy's sitter was one of his teachers. Even though she doesnt work at the school anymore she still babysits. We pay a small fortune for her but it is worth it to get out once a month.
Ask at your church/Temple. They usually have a lot of resources. Ask at your childs school, a lot of times the teachers babysit for extra money (I always did)