Has Anyone Used Sittercity and If So, What Was Your Success with It

I am a sitter registered with Sittercity and although I've been on there for over 2 years, I have NEVER gotten a job through them, even from folks that post for sitters locally. I will add that I am retired and have years of experience and *excellent* references. They recommend a background check for sitters, but no where on their site do they say how much it costs; they only ask for your credit card. The very best way to find a sitter is through referrals from other parents at the school your child attends or your church, if you attend one. Colleges are also excellent resources. Many of them have a service where they advertise jobs for students. I get all my jobs through referrals. Also, if you have a neighborhood newsgroup, that is a great place to find someone. A lot of times folks in our neighborhood share nannys and sitters. That is where I get all my business - and I stay quite busy!

Hi L.,
I also live in Westchester. My neighbor up the street watches kids during the day. I can get her address- you could stop by and talk to her. We live on Portsmouth- she lives on the 1300 block of Portsmouth and her name is Marilyn. PM me if you want more info.

T.

Just want to say that you definitely need a new sitter! Your child care giver does what you want them to do, not the other way around. Nice doesn't cut it!
I'm not sure what your intentions were -- but you will more than likely need to pay someone for all day even though she will be in kindergarten for 3 hours. My nannies will do the children's laundry, organize the play room, dishes, etc. during any down time (naps, school, etc.) Also she will do errands - grocery shopping, birthday present shopping, etc.
With all that being said, I LOVE sitter city. I have found all of my full-time nannies on there and also part-time nannies and weekend night out babysitters on there and love all of them. You do have to do your own interviewing/reference checking like someone else said vs. a nanny service, but it is a lot more cost effective. It can get frustrating.. there are people who don't show up for interviews, etc., but make sure you report them as such for the next family (and hope the family before you did the same so you don't waste your time with them!)
Good luck!

I have used it and its great! Although this second time I am having a hard time finding a good candidate, but I do think its worth it.

I used sittercity a couple of times and was always happy. I think it is a great resource but you do have to do your own checking of references, etc.

We used sitter city to get our current sitter. I can tell you that I interviewed many sitters before we found the one we have.

I actually met them outside the home. Usually at corner bakery or a coffee house, to get a feel for the person and see if we clicked before I brought them to meet my son.
If I liked the person I set up another day where she would come by for a hour or two and play with my son while I was home. So he could see that I was ok with this person and to see how they interacted with my son.

Good Luck to you!

We found our occasional sitter through sittercity b/c we really didn't know anyone with kids to ask.... I believe (this was last summer) that I posted a "job ad" and got some replies. Looked at what the replies were and I picked one gal who lived nearby to check up on. I called her references and they were good. We met with her at our local coffee shop, I had a nice chat with her and my son met her. I had good vibes all around and we've been very pleased with her. She's our "go to" person at this point (though we don't go out that much).

I felt a little weird about calling up the references (mostly because I'm not super chatty and don't like making phone calls to people I don't know) but was glad that I did. Sittercity recommends that you do a background check on your potential sitters as well - I did not do this because I thought it was unnecessary after talking to a few folks who knew her, but it might give you peace of mind to do so.

The one annoying thing was that this spring my membership was set to expire and instead it got automatically renewed, which I had not intended to happen (because I haven't used it since we found our one person). I think you have the option to get it for either a month or a year and the price difference is only like $10, so we opted for a year but probably only needed a month. Anyway - remember to discontinue your membership when you're done with it so you don't get charged for an extra year.