Afterschool care in Portland, OR

January 23, 2012 12:49 PM

(single dad filter) How do I go about finding afterschool care for my daughter? She's 9, but doesn't do well in afterschool programs, and I'd like to find someone trustworthy to collect her from school and hang with her until I get home at 5 each day. I'm in Multnomah Village, Portland.
posted by nicktf to Human Relations (10 answers total)

I have had good luck with care.com (I like it a little better than sittercity.com but that's another site with the same basic format). I just signed up for one month, found my sitter, then cancelled my membership. Write your ad to be as detailed as possible, including how much you can pay; I didn't include that at first and got all kinds of nannies responding who wanted about twice as much as I could afford.
posted by rabbitrabbit at 12:54 PM on January 23, 2012

She's old enough to be watched by a neighborhood teenager, unless the high school lets out later than the elementary school. Ask your daughter's teacher if he/she knows anyone suitable, ask other parents of kids in her classroom. Ask friends and neighbors.
posted by mareli at 12:57 PM on January 23, 2012

That sounds like a great job for a stay-at-home parent with a child at the same school. You could try asking the school office if they know of someone who does that, or you could ask your daughter's teacher. As a bonus, when the school district has a day off the parent will probably be available to keep your daughter for the whole day.
posted by kate blank at 1:01 PM on January 23, 2012

Yeah, this is the perfect job for a high school student. Try hanging fliers in the local high school, posting on Craigslist (or seeing if you community has a community equivalent).
posted by i_am_a_fiesta at 1:01 PM on January 23, 2012

Before we chuck the afterschool program idea, what seems to be the issue? Interest, money, attention span...? I would hesitate in letting a neighbor teen watch a 9 year old. Care.com isn't a bad idea and we paid a nursing student $10/hour to watch our 3 month old at the time (she stayed until he was 15 mo and in daycare). You can find what you need through Care.com and for the right amount. I would trust someone like that over a teen in the neighborhood. I strictly put nursing and child education students prefered. At least I felt they could handle the attitudes that babies/toddlers/young adults can bring, teach them something, and have fun.

My son is 3 and in daycare but trust me, I already worry about this when the time comes.
posted by stormpooper at 1:02 PM on January 23, 2012

When I was a kid, my parents hired college students to do this. Usually it was 2 different students each semester (one doing MWF, the other doing TuTh.) We always loved them, they were good role models, and after the first few, it was easy for my parents to find replacements when they graduated, because they'd happily refer their younger friends.
posted by juliapangolin at 1:07 PM on January 23, 2012

As an education student, I often get emails from the department secretary for after school babysitting jobs - can you reach out to an education department at a local college/university? Otherwise you can try a student association, ours posts babysitting jobs on their website.

You could also try asking at the school. Maybe the secretary knows a family that looks after a few kids after school and could match you to someone.
posted by sarae at 2:26 PM on January 23, 2012

Following up on juliapangolin's suggestion: you live very close to my college (Lewis and Clark). I know that a lot of parents in this area post job listings on the Lewis and Clark website. I've found several babysitting jobs through that listing. You can specifically look for people with their own transportation, and maybe find a couple of people to alternate during the week.
posted by rabbitbookworm at 4:12 PM on January 23, 2012

I would check with the local colleges for a job board to post on- I found one of my best babysitters that way. I would also suggest seeing if there is an online parent group that you can join and post- my boyfriend did this recently and found a mom at who was picking up her son at the same school where his daughter goes.
posted by momochan at 6:35 PM on January 23, 2012

My city has a list of registered daycare providers. We went through the list and found some offering afterschool pickup and care at their home. Took the kids with me to interview several, and together chose the one we liked.

I used a high-school student one summer and had issues with reliability every single day. YMMV but it's good to figure out what situations might arise and how to manage them.
posted by CathyG at 9:02 AM on January 24, 2012