A Review of Sitter City

With the plethora of online based babysitting search engines and companies, I have come upon many that are excellent and many that don't live up to my standards of how a babysitting networking site should be. Recently on the request of a friend, I have decided to try out Sitter City, a subscription-only web site, and offer up my review of its nanny services and my experience with them.

The startup rate to join Sitter City is around $40 and afterwards, $10 a month to maintain the subscription. If you choose to opt for the annual plan, you can save two dollars a month and will be billed at the end of your year. After some research, I've found that Sitter City's costs aren't that different from other babysitting networkers. For the extensive services that they offer, it is actually a bargain.

At Sitter City, there are more than 150,000 sitters who all go through background checks and are willing to provide you with the information you need. Their search engine is extremely easy to navigate through and I made a sample search for babysitters in my area by simply typing in my zip code. A total of 2,285 sitters turned up--their approximate distance away from my house specified in the upper right hand corner of their boxes. Once I clicked on their profiles, more specific information was revealed such as a brief bio, references, work experience, skills and certifications and job preferences. You can refine your search according to what you find most important.

I picked a sitter that lived about five miles from my home. I had corresponded with her through e-mail to ask her additional questions although most of them were already answered on Sitter City. When she came, she was pretty much what I expected in a babysitter. She was exceedingly nice to my kids and according to my 5-yr old afterwards, she was like "a younger and funnier Mary Poppins". If any kind of review, it's that of your own child that says the most. I definitely recommend Sitter City as a source for your babysitter search.