Sitter city versus Care.com for hiring a nanny

[Anonymous]

Which site is better for finding a nanny? I tried Care.com earlier this year and wasn’t impressed by the candidates, and ended up finding a babysitter through a friend for the summer. But now I need to hire a nanny so am wondering what’s the better place to look? I plan to post here and also to the neighborhood listserv.

[Anonymous]

I would say both websites are comparable.

[Anonymous]

Definitely care.com but you have to do the work of going through profiles.

We found our amazing nanny on care.com and her credentials are beyond impressive. We didn’t find anyone like her through a top agency.

[Anonymous]

As a college educated career nanny of 20 years, I wouldn't touch care with a ten foot pole. None of my professional nanny colleagues use care either. They are the only website that charges nannies to even have an account, and several nannies have posted in nanny-only groups that even after paying for the service, care canceled their account for no reason at all, and refused to refund even though they had paid for the full year in advance. There have been other issues as well.

However, I do use sittercity, and I have for several years. If you're going to use either of these websites, I would recommend sittercity.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:As a college educated career nanny of 20 years, I wouldn't touch care with a ten foot pole. None of my professional nanny colleagues use care either. They are the only website that charges nannies to even have an account, and several nannies have posted in nanny-only groups that even after paying for the service, care canceled their account for no reason at all, and refused to refund even though they had paid for the full year in advance. There have been other issues as well.

However, I do use sittercity, and I have for several years. If you're going to use either of these websites, I would recommend sittercity.

I’m a college educated nanny of ten years and I have gotten both my positions on care.com and never had an issue. Both are/were great jobs. All of my nanny friends are with agencies and I’ve never known anyone who ever used sitter city.

[Anonymous]

I think most families in general know about & use Care.com however I have heard many Nannies complain about that website so for Nannies at least, it doesn’t seem Nanny user friendly at all.

I used Sittercity.com about a decade ago + found excellent families on there, however have not heard much about it in recent yrs.

And most definitely no Craigslist!

[Anonymous]

We use SitterCity or UrbanSitters. We had a horrible experience with Care. Any one you use, do independent background checks. The ones from the site are a joke.

[Anonymous]

All if my career nanny friends prefer to be placed through agencies

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:All if my career nanny friends prefer to be placed through agencies

Yes because just keep in mind that any + everyone can go online, attach the label “Professional Nanny” to themselves and offer their services up.

Yes ANYone.

All they need is access to the Internet.

[Anonymous]

YMMV - in a decade + of working as a nanny, I never met one who got their job through an agency.

I found a family through DCUM. After that, every job was word of mouth.