Clever Child Care

I'm starting to get smart about child care. Or at least I have friends who are smart, and it's starting to rub off on me. It's a funny thing to "get a sitter" when you're a stay-at-home-mom. It's hard to justify spending money on a sitter when your primary job is to be home with your kids.

But it is also super easy to justify spending money on a sitter when your primary job is to be home with your kids. Because you can never leave your job. Ever. Unless you have a sitter.

So here are three creative sitter ideas I want to pass along:

1. Hour for Hour: The most obvious of the babysitter swaps. My friend Ali and I try for this once a month. We set the dates on the calendar. One day a month I'll drop my kids off at her house from 9-1. And then later that month she'll drop her kids off at my house from 9-1. It means when my kids are at her house, I can be at my own house, without kids. Which is one crazy, amazing feeling. I've also noticed how much easier my own kids are when Ali's kids are over. Everyone seems a bit more self-sufficient because they have playmates. I still have to help with toy disputes and sharing from time to time, but I love having her kids here. And I love having my own time too. And when my kids go to her house, she feeds them her food. When her kids are at my house, I feed them our food. No packing lunches...that just makes more work for the mama who is getting the morning off!

2. Parent Date Night: My friend Allyson thought this one up and it's brilliant. At the beginning of each month she emails me dates they are available for the next month. Any nights of the week are game. Then I reply with the dates that work for us. We narrow down to two different nights. One night Rory and I will bring both cars and our kids to her house, while she and her husband go out on a date. When bedtime comes, Rory loads our kids in one car and takes them home for bedtime. I put Allyson's kids to bed and then cozy up on their couch with a good book because the deal with this swap is that it usually allows for late night dates. The couple on the date isn't paying for a sitter, which means this date can be longer than normal. And when they return, I get in my own car and drive myself home. It eliminates paying a sitter AND driving to pick up and drop off the sitter! The babysitting itself is a family affair...I love having Rory babysitting with me and it's easy peasy because our kids adore each other and entertain themselves nicely.

3. Monday Morning Babysitter: This one costs money. At some point it dawned on me that dollar for dollar, I would rather pay for a babysitter for four hours on a Monday morning than for four hours on a weekend night. So I have a girl from church come for just four hours each week. I pay a little more because she's married and this is her income. But it's worth every dime. The bonus is that when I wake up on a Monday morning around 7, I have this two hour high productivity window that amazes me. I know my reward is coming at 9:00 in the form of a babysitter, so I get the house in shape, clean the kitchen, do some laundry, get myself ready and at 9:00 I fly out the door to a coffee shop or whatever. And sometimes Rory and I will arrange to meet for lunch, which makes this a legit date with my husband, as well.

And finally, I can't number this one because I haven't done it myself, I have a friend who used to live in South Dakota and swapped with two other friends. One loved to watch kids, one loved to make soup and another loved to make homemade cleaning products. So once a month they swapped these services. How clever is that?!!

So these are my latest discoveries in the world of Mama Self Care. Anyone else have any clever babysitting ideas?