I am a DIY kind of gal so when it comes to running the businesses (yes, that is plural) and keeping up on housework and making time for the kids I figured I could manage it! Who the hell was I kidding! Working from home is great, or the idea of it is great. You think, well I can set my own hours and work when I want and spend whatever time I want with the kids. Then, you get busy and you start to justify, well at least I can take a break and go and see my kid anytime I want where if I worked out of the home, I would never see them.
Wrong! I would be such a better mother and have more chances at actual quality time with my kids if I did work outside the home! But this is not even an option for me due to the businesses growing, so I decided to take a step back and think....
1. what would make my life easier?
2. what would allow me to get the work I needed done in the time I needed it done?
3. what would keep my kids busy without turning on the TV more than we should this summer?
A super babysitter! Not just any babysitter, but one who will not just "watch the kids" but will keep them active this summer and one who will enjoy teaching my kids new things. Oh, and let's not forget someone who can occasionally watch them when mommy and daddy want to go out- ALONE! Yes, I am talking about dating my husband because not only are the kids being neglected, so is my marriage.
So, that's the answer to my prayers, but HOW do I find said babysitter when we live in a place where we don't know very many people and have virtually no family close by? I cam across a couple online websites that help find babysitters. At first I was a little leery about finding a sitter online but after browsing through the listings, I realized I could find someone with the qualifications I needed, interview, and do background checks.
The two sites I found were:
Sitters.com which attracted me first because it had no sign up fee and had a "pay as you go" option which allows you to pay for number of contacts (messages) you can send. It also has a money back guarantee.
I chose this one and bought the smallest amount of credits as possible and posted my job but no one responded so I contacted a ton with still no response. It looks like not a ton of people log into this site on a regular basis, so I doubt these girls are even checking their account!
So, this lead me to go back to another site: SitterCity.com that allows you to post a job for free and view candidates for free, but you can't access contact info until you pay a set up fee plus the monthly fee. So, I posted my job and had a ton of people apply! 3-4 looks very promising, so I budged and paid the sign up fee so I could contact the applicants I liked.
Keep your fingers crossed for my sanity!! Who knows, maybe I can also find someone to help with Bubele? ;)
