A community babysitting cooperative is a grassroots type of arrangement in which families share child care without any money changing hands. Instead, the care itself is the currency of exchange. For example, in many babysitting cooperatives, families earn points for providing care and spend points on care for their own kids. Points are typically assigned to each half hour or hour of care.
Many babysitting cooperatives are started by a few families who know each other because they are friends, live in the same neighborhood, or have children who play together. A small group has the benefit that parents and children will all grow to know and trust each other. At the same time, with just a few families, you may not be sure that you'll get child care when you need it; a larger group makes it more likely that someone will be available when your child needs care.
A babysitting cooperative can have as few as two or three families, although groups that small will probably need to agree in advance on how often members will generally ask for (and provide) care. The maximum number of families in the group will depend on how much record keeping, scheduling, and other administrative tasks you're willing to take on. Most groups find that 25 families or so is a manageable high end. Keep in mind, however, that larger groups may be subject to state licensing regulations of child care facilities. You can find your state's rules at the website of the National Resource Center for Health and Safety and Childcare and Early Education.
Because you may need more families to get your group off the ground—and because children grow up, families move away, and the membership of your group will otherwise change—you'll also have to decide how to choose and admit new members. Often, new members will appear organically as children change schools, join new activities, or make new friends. You can also put an advertisement on your neighborhood or school listserv or in a school newsletter. It's a good idea to agree in advance about how new members will be admitted—does everyone in the group have to agree, or will there be a voting system? And what about the uncomfortable situation in which someone is denied membership? You'll need to have a party line for these circumstances—for example, "our group requires unanimity to admit a new member, and we didn't get complete agreement on having you join."
The group can either have one person take care of record keeping and other duties or share these responsibilities. If you choose to have one person in charge, that person can also be responsible for matching child care needs with available caregivers and keeping track of each family's points. This administrator person schedules who goes where at what time and keeps track of how many points each family has earned and spent.
Often, the administrator is compensated with points, which can be earned on a flat-rate basis—ten points for each month worked, for example—or an hourly basis for time spent on administrative duties. The administrator can serve for as long or as short a period as you want. Some groups rotate administrators every month, some every six months, and others even less frequently.
Another option is to have participants schedule care directly with each other, "paying" for their time by exchanging tickets or scrip with assigned time values. Each family receives a certain amount of time upon joining the co-op, and may then exchange care with other families, using the tickets or scrip to keep track of hours spent and earned.
Without an administrator, it can be more difficult to track which parents need care or are available to provide it. Some solutions include using an online calendaring system, regularly exchanging information (for example, in a weekly or biweekly email) on each family's needs and availability, or creating a listserv where group members can post this information.
Although the point or ticket system works well for larger groups of parents who want occasional help, there are many other ways to organize a babysitting share. If you need regular babysitting, for example, you could come up with a set weekly schedule for child care. For example, you could take care of the kids after school on Mondays and Wednesdays, while your neighbor takes care of them on Tuesdays and Thursdays.
There are several other issues to consider if you're arranging a community child care co-op, including some or all of the following:
The Sample Babysitting Coop Agreement below shows how one group decided to handle many of these concerns.
Your co-op should have written policies and a standard agreement that each new member must sign before requesting or providing care. A sample agreement, including the co-op's policies, is below. Try to keep your policies and agreement as simple as possible to start with. You can always add more rules later when you see how things are going and what's actually happening in your group.
Sample Babysitting Cooperative Agreement
This agreement is between all members of the Montclair Babysitting Cooperative. By signing this agreement, each member agrees as follows:
Each person's signature below indicates consent to all terms of this agreement.
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