Would you join a babysitting swap group...with strangers?

[Hillargh]

Originally Posted by ulawolf What are people supposed to do if they have no.friends or family? I wouldnt just give my kids to strangers but i could see joining a babysitting coop to meet parents to see if they have same values and ideas etc. I would of course want background checks and expect one on me but i don't see it much different than a playgroup.

I don't go anywhere without DS except maybe 1x a month to the grocery store when I can bribe my mom into watching him for an hour by doing her shopping as well. No idea what others do.

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[irishmama2]

Nope

[Mom2Connor]

No, definitely not. And a background check means nothing other than the person has been CAUGHT. It does NOT mean the person is safe to leave your child with.

DS only stays with immediate family for the occasional night every month or two that we get out together alone. And every other week or so, he goes two doors down to a well recommended to us home daycare for a couple hrs to play when we have something going on that he can't attend.

[JennTheMomma]

Originally Posted by EmilytheStrange see.. I really miss this sense of community. when neighborhoods were more than houses.

Me too. When we moved here 5 years ago I thought it would be more community like. It's a small town, and I grew up in a small town where everyone knew eachother. It was nice. But not here. It is basically just houses. Heck most people don't even go outside, like ever. I see more people shoveling their drive ways then I do any other time. It sucks here

[Kimmyann]

Honestly, I don't know. Care.com does something similar to. Would I use it...probably not..but truthfully I found our 14 year old babysitter because she and her friends came to my house trick or treating at Halloween and made such a fuss over my little guy I asked if any of them ever babysit. I didn't know her at all.
My son went to daycare and goes to summer camp. Supposedly they hire qualified people. Outside of the daycare or camp settings I know nothing about the people watching my son. Daycare says they do background checks but they have such a high turn over who really knows. Camp? I don't think they do background checks. They seem to be kids that went to camp and grew up into teens and are now counselors.

[CuriousElephant]

Never.

[luvsviola]

I'm glad I'm a MS/HS teacher. I have a couple of really responsible students that watch my kids when I get desperate, and my mom has a neighbor who is 16 who babysits. If I get desperate, all it takes is one Facebook post to the HS orchestra Facebook page and I'll have about 5 girls who want to spend the evening with my kiddos.

Otherwise, my mom and my SIL babysit.

[Teexie]

Not a chance. But then again my DD hasn't been away from me or DH in the 15 months of her life, except for 4 hours total when she was with one of the grandmas. I would be VERY particular about who she is staying with. If I needed to find a babysitter, there would be an interview process involved.
I plan to be much more lenient when DD is old enough to talk and tell me what's happening while I'm gone.

[Hope4More]

no. I allow my Sister in Laws to baby sit. I allow my mom to babysit. I allow my carefully selected home daycare provider to babysit. I've allowed my MIL and FIL together to set a few times. Other than that, I'd have to know them pretty well. I would consider one neighbor I talk with a lot. Basically, i'd have to know them for several months, I'd have to know they do well with DS, and I'd have to know they know kids in general. Random craiglist strangers? Nope.

Here's why, and this might get flame, but Its what I think... At one point in my life, I was called infertile and I was DESPERATE for a kid. Would I have stolen one? Absolutely not. But at that time in my life, I could TOTALLY see how a person gets to a point where they WOULD. If you don't know someone, you have no idea where to look if your kid goes missing. Not to mention all the other awful reasons adults like to have kids alone...

[dancingingrace]

Never. Ever. I will freely admit that I am one of those "extreme" moms, but I don't care, my kids' protection and safety is the world to me, and I have also experienced first-hand (without actually being the victim/perp) some horrific things that have happened to kids at the hands of "trusted" relatives. There are 3 people, aside from DH and myself, who are allowed to keep my children, and those are my mom, my gram and my pap (and pap never would by himself just b/c he wouldn't be comfortable at his age trying to keep up the kids, even though I trust him 100%). There are lots of other people who I trust and love, but I still won't leave my kids alone with them. When DD was 8 months, MIL/FIL kept her for about 2 hours while we went to the store and lunch, and I didn't enjoy a second of it b/c I just wanted to get back and get her. We also live away from any friends/family, our closest people are 2 1/2 hours away. We just know that while we have young children at home, our life is about them, and we never have a reason to NEED to be away from them. Sure, we'd love to be able to get out alone once in a while for a date or something, but we just improvise and do homemade dates! This is also the reason why I refuse to put my kids in daycare...we just sacrifice the income and nicer things, and I stay home (which I LOVE, I don't mean that it is a sacrifice), and we're also going to homeschool (we have bigger reasons for this). I know this isn't an option for everyone, esp. single parents, but I'm just thankful that we DO have that option. DH and I aren't the type to have lots of friends, we're each other's best friend, but even the small handfull of friends that we do have, who share our morals, values, have their own kids, etc...still wouldn't keep our kids. Like someone else said, aside from trusting the caregiver, leaving your kids somewhere also means trusting every single person that may come to their home, and that just isn't possible. So....as I said....I'm extreme, I'll admit.