How to find a babysitter in Seattle?

January 30, 2007 9:24 PM

How to find a babysitter in Seattle?

I have a 5 year old boy and live in Seattle (Greenlake area). Never actually had a babysitter before other than family (usually one of the grandparents). It would be really handy once in a while (probably round once a month, if that) to find a sitter for an evening but I am totally lost as to how to go about it.

I guess the question is both the specific (eg: how to find a sitter in this area) and the more general (eg: how to tell if a potential sitter is a good one).

posted by Riemann to Human Relations (6 answers total)

Craigslist
Or the Yellow pages, or you can try sitter city Also ask neighbors, or some folks at your church or whatever community thing you might participate in. You can put out the feelers among your coworkers as well to see if thier kids what to babysit.

To see if they are going to be good at what they do, ask for references and call them.... (at least 3) and introduce them to your kids during an interview process.
posted by bigmusic at 9:41 PM on January 30, 2007

Make friends with the older kids in your neighborhood (if there are any)... If they're interested in babysitting, have them meet your son way ahead of time to see if he feels comfortable with them... Or find other moms in the neighborhood who might want to swap babysitting duties with you (taking turns watching each other's kids when either of you has an evening planned).
posted by amyms at 10:00 PM on January 30, 2007

Since you live around Greenlake you're not going to find many high school kids BUT you are going to find tons of college kids looking for something to do to make some money.

My suggestion for you is to find a sitter from UW since it is so close and half of Greenlake goes to UW.

When I was at UW I remember parents posting help wanted ads in sororities. My girlfriend (2 years out of school) still sits for some kids she started helping with her sophomore year. Theres are 20 or so sororities with over 100 women each, you'll find someone there.

Also, have you thought about posting a help wanted ad/poster in UW's College of Education building (Miller Hall)? Lots of budding teachers to choose from.
****
(If you want, you can email me and I can see if my girlfriend has any friends that may want an occasional/part time babysitting gig.)
posted by ASM at 10:24 PM on January 30, 2007

Call your local nursing school and talk with the administrative offices about students they may recommend.
posted by 6:1 at 10:52 PM on January 30, 2007

There are always ads in the Daily (UW student newspaper) for babysitters and nannies. I don't see the same ads for very long, which might indicate that the positions are being filled quickly.
posted by rossination at 12:21 AM on January 31, 2007

I had great success with craigslist in VA, for what it's worth.
posted by selfmedicating at 10:00 AM on January 31, 2007