"toypup" wrote in message
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"Kat" wrote in message
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I talked to my next door neighbour yesterday and asked her if any of her
girls babysat. She said both girls are at that age and both do babysit,
although the older one has recently taken up some kind of part time job.
I believe her daughters are16 and 12 or 13. I basically told the
neighbour that I am stuck for a sitter this weekend.
It's my dad's work Halloween party, and this is something I really do
look forward to each year, and out of the 8 he's had so far, the only one
I missed was 2 years ago, when DD2 was born. I believe she was 4 days
old for that Halloween party, so I (obviously) skipped out on the party.

When your kids are slightly older, you might check out Kidspark or some
other hourly drop-in childcare center. They are open until midnight on
weekend nights and pretty darn late other nights. Those type of centers
are expanding all over the nation. We just got one in our area and I am
thrilled.

I've never even heard of that kind of a place...
The one thing with a drop in place is that I know DD2 does NOT sleep in
unfamiliar places. I even have to struggle with her if we're at my parents'
place and she is in dire need of a nap. I usually have to crawl in a bed
with her and wait until she falls asleep. For once in a blue moon, I can
probably manage a sitter. I don't really need someone to stay with the kids
very often... and 99% of the time my mom is available (or my aunt or grandma
or a friend). This is, actually, the first time I've *ever* had a
babysitter come in that wasn't close friend or family. I didn't ever even
have a sitter in for DS before, and he's going to be 8 in Jan.
I know we have a 24 hour emergency childcare thing here in the city... I
know of one for sure, and I've heard another place does the same basic thing
of 24/7 "emergency" childcare. The one I know for sure of is available
24/7, is free for anyone to use, but the (obviously) have limited spaces and
all that. And you can leave your child(ren) there up to 72 hours. This
isn't something that really interests me in leaving my children at, even for
a couple hours, as I do feel those that should use it should have absolutely
no other choice. Like, an example, I've heard people will bring their
children there if they have no family here or friends and, say, they go in
to the hospital to have a baby or something. I know there's also people
that do use this childcare to go out and party, but in that case, it's
probably better for the children to be in good hands than in a party house
(which might or might not mean drugs and alcohol in the house) or left
alone.
Anyways, I haven't heard of this Kidspark before. Sounds like it is an
excellent idea for those that are in need of childcare and don't have any
other options.