the birth of a babysitting cooperative
how to build community & save money at the same time
by christina jacob

A couple of years ago my husband and I hired a babysitter for our son, Nicolai, so that we could spend an evening out on the town. After spending $7 each for a movie and about $30 for dinner, and then paying the babysitter $7 for each hour she spent in our home, we came to the conclusion that we would not be going out together again for some time.

Unless, that is, we came up with an alternative plan. Sure, we could have spent less on dinner or gone to a matinee, but that was not our primary concern. We wanted a way to do whatever we wanted, but not have to spend our hard-earned money on a babysitter too. We also wanted to be able to feel confident that our son was being well cared for.

That is when we came up with the idea of starting a babysitting cooperative. I had heard of such a thing through the proverbial grapevine, but wasn’t aware of one in existence locally. Just for fun I conducted a search for “babysitting cooperative” on Google and, lo and behold, I came up with lots of hits—so many it was actually a little overwhelming. I perused the guidelines and structure of a few to help us find a jumping-off spot and then penned a preliminary outline of what our co-op might look like.

Then I hit the pavement. We were new to our neighborhood and were looking for a way to get to know other young families. I told our neighbors with children about the basic co-op idea and they were all interested. We had a meeting and the Asheville Babysitting Cooperative—or ABC—was born.

The idea is a simple one, though based on some of the websites I discovered it is also simple to make the structure of babysitting co-ops extremely complex. The setup of ours, however, is fairly easy to grasp. Each family has a list of all member families, which includes identifying information and the days and times each family is likely to be able to babysit. We have a group-appointed chairperson of sorts, a secretary, and a banker who manage co-op details.

We exchange “babysitting bucks” within our membership for babysitting time provided. The bucks are cloth and are available in one hour and half-hour denominations. When a family joins the co-op they receive 20 bucks if they have one child and ten more for each additional child. It costs one buck to have one child babysat for one hour. Each additional child costs the parents an additional half buck per hour. The location of the babysitting is dependent upon the needs of the parents. Emergency contacts, the name of each child’s physician, and any other pertinent information is left with the babysitting family.

The members of our co-op get together about every six weeks for a potluck. We rotate among the members’ homes when possible. This enables everyone to become familiar with each of our homes. Since most of us live in modest (read: small) homes, we meet in larger spaces, like a library’s community room for instance, in the winter months. These gatherings serve to assist everyone in becoming better acquainted. They also provide an opportunity for co-op-related questions and concerns to be aired. Quite a few friendships have grown out of these potlucks, and all of us look forward to them.

We are now 20 families strong. Though a few of our member families live outside of West Asheville, our co-op is composed mainly of West Ashevillians. Word of our existence has been spreading through the community. One interested family even sent out a plea for more information about us on a local website. After recently deciding to limit our membership to 20 families, it looks as though we will soon be starting a waiting list.

Though the studies focusing on our co-op are not yet complete, preliminary findings suggest that the participation of our children in this endeavor has resulted in their having higher than average intelligence and self-esteem. Of course, that is a blatant falsehood. The study part of it anyway; most of us will swear that the intelligence and self-esteem part is God’s own truth. I am certain of one thing (and I think some kind of study somewhere might bear me out on this account.) This babysitting cooperative has done a great job of meeting a financial need of many local working-class families and, at the same time, inspiring the growth of a strong community of friends and neighbors.

Christina Jacob lives with her husband and son in West Asheville. She works part-time as a home health social worker and writes when she can find the time. She would be glad to share more information about the ABC with those who are interested in starting a babysitting co-op of their own. [ 828-259-9467 ]