How to Plan and Start a Babysitting Co-op

Co-ops have long served as a means for groups of people to pool their resources to achieve their common goals inexpensively. Baby sitting co-ops are gaining more popularity as knowledge of them grows. Baby-sitting co-ops are usually smaller than large daycare centers. A co-op can be made up of a large group of parents, or a small group that choice is up to the participants. Parents basically take turns providing child care for one another's children providing what amounts to free childcare so they can work, run errands, or just have some down time. A co-op will take some preparation and planning to successfully start and maintain. Larger co-ops will require more preparation and planning than small co-ops. The rewards of co-ops are well worth the effort as they help cut the cost of daycare and also help parents to make friends with other parents. They also provide many benefits for the children being cared for.

Over time co-op kids grow closer to one another than they would in regular day care because there is higher turn over of both employees and children in traditional day care settings. Also since the children are cared for in smaller settings they won't be exposed to as many illnesses as they would be if they attended a child care center with fifty other students. Another benefit of co-ops is that they are very flexible allowing them to meet a variety of parent's day care needs. When forming your co-op and attracting new members try to find a diverse group of parents. Having some members that are stay at home parents and some that work outside the home can really help parents balance their daycare needs and possibly earn a little bit of extra money. Most co-ops allow parents who need more daycare than they can provide to pay the co-op an hourly rate for any leftover hours. This fee is then distributed to parents that use fewer hours of care than they provide.