Sittercity vs Nannies for Hire

[ZeeBaby]

Anyone familiar with both? Which would you recommend. TIA!

[ZeeBaby]

Bump, Bump

Just bumping up to see if anyone can help. We need a nanny by February. I have to go back to work

[Momof3Labs]

you will have to weed through a lot of sitters to find the nannies on sittercity. craigslist has worked for us. we also tried enannysource but came up empty - partly a geographical issue.

[jenandahalf]

What city are you in? Here in Chicago there is an online group called North Side Parents Network which has a lot of members who will recommend their nannies and former nannies who are looking for work. Maybe there is something like that where you live?

[SnuggleBuggles]

Another thing to consider are local universities. If you need all day every day it probably wouldn't work b/c they are students but if you have a abnormal schedule it could be a good option. Craig's List has worked well for people I know.

Someone on here had a bad experience with Sittercity, I think. The person was a no show so she wrote a bad review. The person just set up a new username and started a new page. I think that Sittercity handled it fine (kicked the person off for violating terms) but that would give me an extra incentive to really screen potential nannies.

Beth

[AmyZ]

I just hired a sitter thru care.com. I've also used sittercity in the past. This time, when I looked thru the profiles, I found that most sitters posted themselves on both sites... so I just picked one.

I think the popularity of the sites depends on where you live.

[vejemom]

Do you have Care.com where you live? We had good luck hiring a sitter from there. My MOPS group also got our Moppet workers through that site. In may area, there were lots of ladies looking to work nanny-type hours (i.e., full time week days)

[C99]

I found our nanny through a $25 ad on Craigslist, but I also joined Care.com as well.

ETA: Also, I think you'll have better luck if you plan to hire within 2-3 weeks of starting the process. I've heard of cases where people had 1-3 nannies quit on them because they found other jobs before the start time. We attracted a lot of qualified candidates because the job started pretty much immediately. I actually had 2.5 weeks to find a nanny and was able to do so.

[Momof3Labs]

I found our nanny through a $25 ad on Craigslist, but I also joined Care.com as well.

ETA: Also, I think you'll have better luck if you plan to hire within 2-3 weeks of starting the process. I've heard of cases where people had 1-3 nannies quit on them because they found other jobs before the start time. We attracted a lot of qualified candidates because the job started pretty much immediately. I actually had 2.5 weeks to find a nanny and was able to do so.

ITA. Now is probably too early to hire for a position that starts in February.

[ZeeBaby]

I am surprised to hear that now is too early for February. I wanted to get some lead time of about a month to try to find someone that is very qualified.

I will take a look at care.com. We live in southern NJ.

C99, did you do your own background checks? I am nervous about craigslist since pretty much anyone can post on there. I think it is even free to put up an ad on my local craigslist.

[Momof3Labs]

The thing is, if you find someone now, chances are really good that they will want/need to start work now, not in a month or so. They may agree to wait a month, but then back out on you if they find something else that starts immediately. You may find someone leaving their current position in Feb by mutual agreement with the family, but the chances that it would line up with your needs timewise are slim. Or you might find someone who is leaving their current family (but the family does not yet know) and is flexible on start date, but IME when someone decides that they want to quit their current family, they want to do it ASAP, which brings you back to the risk that they will find something else that starts sooner.

It really is a tough balance. I would suggest that you start looking now and plan to let the person start as soon as they want, even if it means overlapping a few weeks of your leave. If you cannot afford to do that, I'd suggest that you start looking about 3 weeks before you go back to work but also look for a plan "B" in case it takes longer to find someone - daycare alternative, neighbor who could take baby for a few weeks, fly grandma in to care for baby for first few weeks, etc.