What if childcare were free?

Being a modern parent is really effing hard and no one gives you enough credit! If you’re a typical parent, you live far from extended family. You might not have many (or any) friends with kids. Hiring a decent sitter is mindbogglingly challenging at best and even your less than ideal caregiver charges a jaw-dropping $18-$25/hr plus taxi fare home if you and your partner merely want to grab dinner and a movie.

84% of US parents spend $2000 a year on babysitters alone (who let’s face it, usually spend most of the time watching TV and raiding your cupboard while your kids are sleeping). Don’t bother hiding your best chocolate or that bottle of red from your honeymoon to to the South of France. It will be found.

And then to top it off, you get guilt tripped by friends and relatives for leaving your kids home with a sitter! You want to be able to spend more time with your children, love to get a moment with your partner (what’s that guy’s name again?) and you also (though you dare not even speak it out of a fear that it might be too selfish), love a little time, or even just one minute for yourself! Is it too much too ask for a little “me-time?”

In your darkest, quiet moment, you whisper to yourself, “there must be a better way!”

There is. Thousands of parents across the country refuse to spend a dime on childcare…and now you can join them. They are part of grassroots babysitting co-ops, preschool co-ops, tutoring shares afterschool co-ops and homeschool co-ops where parents trade quality care and educational activities for free, saving $2000, $5000 even $10000 or more on childcare and education costs. The caregivers are awesome, because they are parents like you. And the activities are fun because they’re always social. Your child makes friends and so do you! Often these co-ops get together for potlucks, clothing swaps, bowling games, playground hangouts and other fun activities, fostering lifelong friendships and support networks.

Sounds too good to be true, right?

Unfortunately, a lot of families try to start babysitting co-ops, but fail. The co-op quickly falls apart in a mess of unanswered requests or unreciprocated help. Because, let’s face it. Parents are busy and it’s hard to find someone with any time to run the dang thing.

Here’s how you can make yours a success.

This January, I founded a company called kidsclub.io that helps parents meet and share trusted childcare for free. We handle the logistics to make sure your childcare share is a raging success. And it’s not just for childcare, you can use Kidsclub to share educational activities too! Babysitting, afterschool, preschool, tutoring, all now free.

Now is the time for your childcare sharing adventure to begin.

Here’s how you can start the “modern parenting village” of your dreams and never spend another penny on childcare again starting today.

Step 1. Sign up for free at kidsclub.io so you can start meeting families in your neighborhood for playdates. Kidsclub will help you build a profile, see who lives near you and communicate with other parents about playdates and requests. We handle the logistics so you can meet new friends and request childcare.

Step 2. Fill out our survey to express interest in starting a customized co-op. This will help us give you hands on help to start a co-op in your neighborhood. We will call you promptly after you fill out our survey and are here to hold your hand every step of the way.

Step 3. Determine the structure of your co-op. What type of co-op do you want? This depends on what kind of care you need. Here are some that tend to work well. It’s also valuable to create a mission statement, core values, determine what parenting styles you’d like to see in your co-op and lay any ground rules you feel to be important.

• Dinner and a movie. Each parent chooses 1 Friday a month where they are the sitter and other parents get to go on a date. This type of co-op usually needs 4 families to make it a success!
• Running club. Each parent chooses a 1 days a week where they watch the kids for 1–2 hours while the other parents go for a run (or do another workout). This co-op needs 4–5 members depending on how often you like to work out:) You can also make a yoga version of this club.
• PreK or homeschool co-op co-op. Each family chooses one morning or one day a week where they are responsible for watching and caring for the kids. We recommend 8 families for this type of co-op so every day there can be one main teacher and one assistant. We can recommend some curriculum for you to use if that’s helpful. I recommend using a shared space or one parent’s home instead of rotating spaces as it’s nice for the kids to have some consistency.
• After-school swap. Each parent trades pick-up at their local school or daycare one day a week. This type of swap requires 5 families to cover all 5 days of the week.
• Points for “Ad-hoc” care. Everyone receives points for trading childcare as they need it when they need. This is a more complicated system as all the parents really need to be proactive about responding and reply to requests as they arise, so the group has to be extra passionate about making this a priority.

Step 3. Recruit members. This is the easy part. You can quickly find people excited about free childcare by posting to your local Mom Club, Facebook, Yahoo or Meetup online parent groups. We can guide you in this process after you fill out our survey.

Step 4. Vet members. In our premium plan, kidsclub will vet the members of your babysitting co-op for you. We run a full criminal background check on each member, check references, conduct interviews and take verified family photos. We also handle emergency contact info, messaging and support you in planning regular group events. The cost of running a full-scope background check on each parent on kidsclub. including the household fee and reference check ranges between $100–150 per family including administrative fees. The nice thing about this fee is that, in addition tun building trust, it also adds accountability for

Step 5. Host regular meetups! On KidsClub, you can create a monthly playgroup or other types of activities for families to join. It’s really important that your famlies meet regularly to make the co-op a success. We suggest one Saturday a month at 11am (always the same time day) as a great time to go to the zoo, hang out at the playground or do a baby clothes swap!

Good luck on your childcare sharing journey! We are here to support you every step of the way! Please post your comments and questions, sign up for kidsclub or fill out our survey to get started!