Finding a good babysitter can be a challenge for working parents. For health care professionals who work crazy hours, varying shifts and holidays — the search can be mission impossible.
"Child care centers aren't open at night or on holidays," said Andrea Freeman, RN, an emergency room nurse at Northside/Forsyth Hospital. "And I didn't want a different sitter all the time. I wanted one reliable person to come to my home to care for my children, so that they could have one-on-one care and take naps in their own beds."
Freeman was fortunate to have good child care for her three boys when she lived in Henry County, but when the family moved to Forsyth County, she soon exhausted her list of friend referrals and contacts. Freeman and her husband, Jack, a physician at North Fulton Hospital, were dining out one night when he mentioned that there should be a Web site where parents could find a babysitter.
"It was as if bells and whistles were going off in my brain," she said. "By the time we got home I had a site planned out and was ready to register the domain name."
Her Web site (www.georgiababysitters.com) was launched on Nov. 2. With more than 400 babysitters registered statewide, the site was born after months of research, planning and Web-page designing. Freeman was determined to develop the kind of resource that would meet her own high standards.
"I wanted it to be very professional and it was important that it be user-friendly," she said. "I spent a lot of time researching and wrote 56 pages of content about the kind of information that I would want to know."
Working with a Web site developer brought ongoing challenges.
"I had everything planned out in my head, but developing all the functions to make it work took a lot of time," Freeman said. "Although it still needs some fine-tuning, I think it's a wonderful site. It's beautifully laid out, inviting and affordable."
Babysitters fill out a profile and are listed in the database for free. Parents search the database for sitters in their area, before paying the monthly fee (start-up special is $14.95 for now) to access the contact information. There's no obligation to join for any time length. Parents and sitters arrange their own interviews and negotiations.
Because finding a babysitter on the Internet can be a scary thought, the site offers parents a background check on sitters for an additional fee, and some sitters have already had their own background checks run. Parents also will find tips about average wages, how to conduct an interview and thought-provoking questions to ask.
Babysitter profiles give information about background, experience, availability, skills, habits, transportation, CPR and first-aid certification. Babysitters can tell more about themselves at the end of the profile.
"I've been screening the profiles to make sure they're complete and I've been surprised at the number of professional nurses or counselors who have registered," Freeman said. "Eventually, we plan to start a section for parents of children with special needs."
She hopes that nurses might be interested in babysitting a child with a medical condition that a regular sitter might find intimidating.
The site also includes an auction center, where parents can buy or sell used baby furniture and items, and a calendar of events. "We thought parents and babysitters would be interested in kid-oriented things to do in their area," Freeman said.
Freeman said the service is exactly what she would have liked to have when she was searching for a babysitter. "We're aiming to make it Georgia's No. 1 resource to find child care," she said.