For Parents' Peace of Mind: Babysitting Coops Go Online

SittingAround enables a night out for parents

Happy children.

(InesBazdar / shutterstock.com)

For parents to small children, babysitting services are an issue. The expenses entailed may put an extra strain on any date night, not to mention the need to find a trusty babysitter - someone you can count on to care for the most precious people in your life.
SittingAround digitizes a common solution - babysitting cooperatives. Previously existing offline, babysitting coops are voluntary, community-based groups of parents that exchange babysitting services: parents enjoy a cut off expenses and the luxury of experienced, reliable sitters. SittingAround brings the power of the web to babysitting coops with savvy, responding to the need with better and easy access.
Membership on SittingAround is free (a $15 annual subscription enables ad-free access to the website), and you can join coops, start new coops, and of course - book sitters and offer your services. To ensure that babysitting services are bartered fairly, each babysitting gig "costs" points - calculated according to the coop's policy (which commonly factors in elements, such as the number of children, number of hours, serving dinner or other extra action items) - which are transferred back and forth between coop's members. Genius. [SittingAround]