Using Care.com

[Anonymous]

Has anyone been having a bad experience using care.com to find childcare providers or looking for a position?
I started looking actively and I’m finding it very useless, it literally makes you get the premium membership in order to have the full access and I’m barely getting any response.

[Anonymous]

Are you a nanny or a family? What have you posted?

[Anonymous]

I have used it multiple times to find care. It is true that you can look for free but only message for a fee, but it is a service and that is how they make money. If you are not getting many replies, you may have something undesirable in your post (not paying enough, split schedule, WFH for both parents, triplets....) This lowers your pool of interested people.

You also have to be aggressive in your search. Yes, Nannies will see your post and might contact you, but you need to also contact people you are interested in. It is like dating or job searching. Cast a huge net and get more narrow as you find people. You can't just post and sit back.

I usually do the three months service so that I don't have to worry about timeline. The cost is about the same as two months if I need more time. Cancel once I find someone

Still waaay cheaper than an agency

[Anonymous]

Added to say found our nanny and she is amazing so worth it

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I have used it multiple times to find care. It is true that you can look for free but only message for a fee, but it is a service and that is how they make money. If you are not getting many replies, you may have something undesirable in your post (not paying enough, split schedule, WFH for both parents, triplets....) This lowers your pool of interested people.

You also have to be aggressive in your search. Yes, Nannies will see your post and might contact you, but you need to also contact people you are interested in. It is like dating or job searching. Cast a huge net and get more narrow as you find people. You can't just post and sit back.

I usually do the three months service so that I don't have to worry about timeline. The cost is about the same as two months if I need more time. Cancel once I find someone

Still waaay cheaper than an agency

+ 1

This is all so spot-on.

[Anonymous]

I don’t like it because they’ve had a lot of problems with their lack of screening leading to troubled individuals getting childcare roles. I prefer sittercity as it’s a higher quality pool

[Anonymous]

Can you say more about this? I always do a background check and sex offender registry search. Are you saying their background check leads to people who have histories getting roles or that people find someone they like, do a check and the person is bad?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I don’t like it because they’ve had a lot of problems with their lack of screening leading to troubled individuals getting childcare roles. I prefer sittercity as it’s a higher quality pool

I think the PP is discussing something that was in the news recently.

A Male babysitter from Sittercity was recently arrested for abusing a child.

The parents had found this sitter using Sittercity however - not Care.com.

Basically anyone who has access to the Internet these days (which is basically EVERYone!), can use these childcare websites & label themselves a Nanny.
They can add years of experience, lie about their qualifications, experience, etc.
The background checks on these websites are not very good either.

The best way a family can find a great childcare provider is either going through a reputable Nanny agency or receive a referral from a friend or family member.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Has anyone been having a bad experience using care.com to find childcare providers or looking for a position?
I started looking actively and I’m finding it very useless, it literally makes you get the premium membership in order to have the full access and I’m barely getting any response.

It’s worked for me three times.

[Anonymous]

I'm on it now and it's been really meh. We do both wfh and we do have a split schedule however, so that could be it. I suspect the main issue is that we're in western Maryland. When we were in DC and needed a nanny for our DS it seemed as if there were way more options. We interviewd for 2 weeks and saw a different person each day. No shortage of choice and we were paying less at the time.

[Anonymous]

I do think the landscape has changed. Several years ago it was much more a employer market in terms of setting the terms and having a variety of candidates. With child care shortages and people seeing the value in nanny care and more people knowing what they can get, nanny candidates can be pickier. I don't think this is a care.com issue so much as a market issue.