Babysitting – A Nightmare For Divorced Parents
Divorce causes many headaches related to finding a babysitter. While married parents may be jealous of how nice it must be to be able to schedule most of one’s social life around when the kids are gone with the other parent every other weekend, there are more hassles finding childcare for single and divorced parents.
Being completely child-free and with no child care issues every-other weekend may be the best perk of being divorced if you have kids, but having to never leave the house any other time without first arranging some sort of child care arrangement can be a nightmare.
A friend I know works very odd shifts and found it almost impossible for a daycare to be open when she actually needed help. The teenagers in her area were so flaky, she could hardly trust them to babysit even in a pinch.
Luckily, some single parents have found alternate choices to help ease the burden.
Some options that work are:
1. Organizing babysitting cooperatives in your area. They coordinate their schedules so that they completely eliminate their childcare expenses, have some free time without kids and help each other even though odd shifts.
2. Try online for babysitters. There are online matching services that match local babysitters to parents just like a dating service matches partners. There are even backgrounds checks to avoid any scary or flaky choices!
3. Trade services. I take a friends children home from school for a few hours every week and, in turn, she provides me with free haircuts and coloring because she works for a great salon! Try seeing what you can trade with friends for babysitting and you may come out ahead and end the nightmare!
