What was your experience like with CARE.COM?

[Anonymous]

I need to hear from other parents who used care.com to search for a childcare provider for your children.

What were your experience like? What did you think about the candidates? Did you find them profressional? Did you find them realistic with their requests? What about their salaries requirements?

I posted yesterday abiut this very same issue om the nanny general topics but I also need to hear from parents as both opinion matter a lot to me.

I have had my experience with the website as a nanny looking for a job, but now I am on the other side of the fence and I am appalled.
I am a professional nanny, with over 10 years of professional experience working as a nanny, NOT caring for my little cousin when I was younger. I am an educated nanny who has worked long term for countless families and I have always worked in an expensive area, and I get paid $18 an hour as a PT nanny for two school aged children, I drive them to all their appointments, playdates, activities, I do their laundry, run errands, cook the kids dinner, with all duties a nanny has, in all I am there to cater to them.

Now, here is my situation, I posted an ad on care.com looking for a SAHM who has young children and was looking for another child to care for as an extra income since they stay home with their own kids, and that I would drop off my child at the caregiver's home. ALL the responses I got and keep getting of mothers who doesn't work and would take another child to care for as an extra income while watching their kids amd every single one of them are charging above $15 per hour, and the lowest rate was $13 per hour. Keep in mind I will be dropping my child off at their home and she will watch my child at her home while she is with her own child. Is this even realistic? Or am I so out of touch? Please i need to hear from others who needs childcare and have experience with going through the process of hiring a nanny.

I live in PG county and theses candidates do as well.

Please share with me your experience with care.com because I have also came across a lot of young girls who are not professional at all, has no professional experience as a nanny, wants me to drop my child off at their house and they are also asking above $15 per hour. I am appalled.

[Anonymous]

You need to post the amount you want to pay in your ad ($10/hr)? A nanny share would likely be $17-18/hr, so if you can find another family, that might be the way to go.

Just because people ask for that money doesn't mean they'll get it, but if your ad suggested you were open to hearing their rates, they're going to ask for best-case scenario.

Why don't you test the market? Post your own ad for $15/hr at your house with your LO and see if you get any takers. If you do, then maybe that's the way to go.

Many SAHMs don't think this will be a full-time gig, either. They may come down on rates if they realize they'll have one child/family to deal with rather than lots of 4-hour drop-offs.

[Anonymous]

If you want them to do childcare for you in their home, they have to get a license first, by law.

[Anonymous]

I feel like if you're dropping the baby off at someone's house it should be $25-35 a day. Being a nanny isn't babysitting kids in your home. That's the problem with care.com...it doesn't weed out "babysitters" and SAHMs...I would look for a licensed in home Childcare.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:If you want them to do childcare for you in their home, they have to get a license first, by law.

You only need a license if it's over 2 children (besides your own). It might vary by state.

[Anonymous]

Alot of people think that going into the nanny biz will automatically get them double the amount of min wage. They don't realize that it varies depending on education, experience, First Aid/CPR, vehicle, duties, amount of children, etc.

They can ask all they want but they'll find it harder to get a job.

How much are you looking to pay? around $10 to 12ish? You shouldn't have to many problems.

[nannydebsays]

Care.com is a clearinghouse for people seeking care and people seeking work. I like to think of it as a sort of dating site, like Match, for parents and caregivers.

Care is not an agency. They don't offer actual match making services, they offer minimal advice to parents or caregivers.

I believe most parents on Care UNDERvalue the cost of the service they are seeking, and most caregivers on Care OVERvalue their worth. That makes for a lot of unhappy people.

So, caregivers (with and without any actual paid experience) ask for the moon and the stars, while parents (who are also equally ignorant when it comes to reality based rates) offer $5 per hour or less.

That said, if you have the patience to weed through responses to your ad AND you have a very well written ad, you can find someone on Care to fit your needs. But it takes work.

[Anonymous]

It takes a lot of work! Not even to mention all the people who doesn't read the ad at all and send a message... It is so irritating and it makes wishing I could just reply in a not very nice way. It upsets me because these unprofessional people make it harder for well qualified and experienced nannies seeking for jobs on care.com. The well qualified nannies can get looked over because of so many bad responses from people who are not professional at all.

[Anonymous]

We recently posted our position on care.com and got a good many responses for a part-time position. Some of the respondees were really quite good and we are happy with our hire. That being said, some of the potential candidates were not good at all - showing up very late for their interviews, etc. Good luck!!

[Anonymous]

16:53, I'd have to say that most (not all) parent undervalue the price of expert professional childcare. I've had exactly one parent who didn't flinch at my 30/hr rates. She was also the one who gave me the limo driver when we went out. She understood that I wasn't a "professional" driver. And I certainly didn't complain.

[Anonymous]

*parents