We 'need a date night' but can't find a baby sitter

SwP thumbnail graphicBy Pepper Parr

March 13th, 2018

BURLINGTON, ON

 

My looking for a baby sitter days ended a long time ago – and taking care of grandchildren isn’t even on the horizon yet. A news release on an app that helps parents find a reliable baby sitter did remind me of the time we needed a baby sitter – I don’t know where we got the name of the person that showed up. She was an older woman.

We explained what was where – this was well before cell phones. We said we would check in during the evening; said what time we expected to get back and headed out. As we were walking to the car I turned to my daughter’s Mother and said – “I don’t feel very comfortable about the women we have left our child with. The Mother said: “neither do I – what should we do?”

Mommy got a headache and we returned to the house apologized to the baby sitter agreed to pay her for the four hours and then drove her home.

Baby sitter doing selfieFinding the right baby sitter is a problem – a lot of people have horror stories.

Elize Shirdel, a Mother of two boys and a Ph.D. in Computational Biology from the University of Toronto, figured there had to be a better way to find the baby sitting help parents are looking for – she created an app called Datenight Babysitting.

The rationale behind the app was to help parents find the time to focus on the glue that holds the family together; their relationship.

Datenight is a mom-founded, parent-built app that was created to simplify the process of finding a reliable babysitter. It’s a platform that connects parents to experienced babysitters in their area. With Datenight and a few clicks, spouses can easily find a babysitter, interview them, chat and pay… but most importantly, they can feel comfortable enough to relax and spend some time together.

The Datenight Babysitting app eliminates the straining process of finding a babysitter by providing a platform for parents and experienced babysitters to connect. Launched in 2014, this leading web and mobile app screens and qualifies a roster of babysitters that live throughout the GTA. So far, Datenight has successfully booked 30,000 hours of babysitting.

Burlington is one of the markets they cover.  The sign up process is pretty simple

Datenight app

There doesn’t appear to be any risk. Depends on the supply of baby sitters.

The reality is, parents just don’t have the time to jump through all the hoops required to find a few great babysitters for their family.

It’s simple – really. Within 10 minutes of registering, parents can request interviews with experienced babysitters from the Datenight roster, who have previously been interviewed by a team of moms. Once the parents are registered, they can view a list of babysitters in their area, along with their information including their experience and credentials. Parents can choose who they wish to interview for themselves; after all, no one will pick a better babysitter for their family than the parents themselves.

Once the parent and babysitter have met and approved the match – they’re connected and parents can book and pay through the app.

Pay through the app? That’s right! Payment details can be awkward and that’s why Datenight handles all that! No last minute dash to the bank, no uncomfortable cash handover. From that point on, babysitters get to control their own hours and parents finally get a night out, to reconnect and focus on their relationship.

Could be worth looking into: www.weneeddatenight.com

 

Salt with Pepper are the views, observations and opinions of the Gazette Publisher.

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