If you can shift the hours just a little, maybe to 8 to noon, you will also appeal to nannies that do split shift for E school kids.

I see no reason why you wouldn't be able to find someone to work those days/hours for you. But like w/any job, there is always that risk that the person will move on to something more profitable if they so choose.

I fully understand that there are more risks for such low hours as you stated so I would do my very best to keep the job you are offering as attractive as possible.

Offer lucrative pay along w/certain benefits such as open pantry deal, paid days off, etc.

The better the job looks to someone, the higher chance that you will have a happy babysitter + happy caregivers usually stay on the longest.

Given the hours you want (early morning start, only for a few hours), I'd email the neighborhood listserve and ask for recommendations. I'm thinking some one who lives in your neighborhood, is taking classes at the community college, would be ideal for you. Some one who lives further away won't commute to start early and only work a few hours.

We're in your opposite situation: we hire for about 6 hours a week for the two days a week I don't telework, but for late ES/ tween kids (but have been doing this for years). College kids are good for this, and we've found good people who stay with us for a year or two, but not forever. There are a lot of NOVA/ GMU, etc students who would love to earn $15-$20/ hour. We use care.com and sittercity, which does involve a lot of screening. The keys: be upfront about the number of hours; pay above market rate ($15-20 for a college student) because they will still have commenting time even if they don't work a full day; guarantee a minimum number of hours per week (which may mean you pay them not to work on snow days and holidays); do a test run (pay the for it!!) to make sure you are comfortable with the interactions; check references carefully; and particularly for an infant/ toddler, make sure they have experience with that age group. You won't get a professional nanny experience, but you should get someone who can care for and play with your child a few hours a week.

Hi DCUM. I'm expecting my first child and childcare for the first year will be mostly covered by my in-laws, which is great. But we'll need someone to cover two mornings a week, probably 7-11am or so. I'm hesitant to hire someone I find off online boards or sittercity, mainly because I worry that if they're only working for us for a maximum of 8 hours a week, they could be unreliable since there's not tons of money on the line. Do nanny and babysitting services handle situations like this? Is it worth the upfront fee to hire someone for such a small amount of time every week? We just need a situation where the care will be reliable. Thanks for any advice and recommendations!