Find a Last Minute Babysitter or Ongoing Childcare with These Trusted Services

You deserve a night out! Sometimes weeks will go by before you realize you’ve been so busy carting the kids around every evening that you haven’t had a date night or a night to yourself. It’s important to take care of yourself and your mental health by giving you and your partner a break! Finding ongoing childcare or a last minute babysitter can be hard! Luckily, there are services available to help connect you with a trusted babysitter or nanny in your area.

Whether you’re looking for a full-time nanny, regular babysitter, drop-in care, pet sitter, tutor, housekeeper, senior care, or a last minute babysitter, we’ve listed several options below to help you find the perfect match to your family’s needs. Go get a massage, plan a date night, or meet up with some friends for a girls’ night out. It’s not only good for you, but it’s also good to get your kids accustomed to being with other adults or caregivers. Don’t wait until you’re in a bind. You can start the babysitter search now, try out or get to know a couple, and ease into longer shifts as you feel more comfortable.

Find a Last Minute Babysitter or Ongoing Childcare

As a former professional nanny who now has children of her own, I know how important (and how difficult) it can be to find childcare for your kids. Luckily for us parents, finding a sitter has moved beyond ads in the sorority house mailroom (how I found my favorite family in college). Check out this list for the basics of local services.

Bambino Babysitting App

The Basics: Bambino allows you to find, book, and pay your babysitter through their app. Great for when you need a last minute babysitter! The app is free to download and free to use. The rates that the sitters charge are displayed so you can decide if it’s within your budget. My favorite feature is that Bambino is connected to my Facebook account so I can see which sitters my friends have used and recommended.

Background Checks, etc: Bambino runs each sitter through the KYC Know Your Customer Check, Office of Foreign Assets Control of the US Department of Treasury Check, MasterCard MATCH Check, Family Watchdog Sex Offender Check, and Cell Phone Verification. If a sitter is 18 or older, they have the option of submitting for a more comprehensive background check and an icon will be placed next to their name.

Fees & Membership Options: Only a small booking fee of $4.95 is attached to the final payment for each sit.
Use this link to get $10 off your first Bambino babysitting appointment.

Sitting Made Simple

The Basics: All sitters are local college students who have already been vetted by the company. Sitting Made Simple offers a range of services from occasional sitting to “part-time parenting”, as well as tutoring, overnight sitting, and pet sitting. The website is clear and concise making it easy to tell if the offerings fit your needs.

Background Checks, etc.: All sitters have clean background checks and driving records and are CPR-certified.

Fees & Membership Options: Memberships start at $50 per year with a $10 scheduling fee. Non-members pay no annual fee but pay a $20 scheduling fee. Sitting rates start at $15/hour. Pet sitting starts at $30/day, and fees vary for tutoring, summer nannies, and more specified placements.

Care.com

The Basics: Offers care options for regular babysitters, date-night sitters, night nannies, pet sitting, housekeeping, tutoring, and care for elderly persons. A basic profile for a family is free but does not offer caregiver contact information. Care.com provides features such as the ability to pay through their website and see caregiver reviews. Once you have a profile you can search for caregivers that meet your criteria and connect with them (with the Standard Membership).

Background Checks, etc.: All caregivers complete a background check before interacting with families. Criminal records, motor vehicle records, etc., are available with Premium Membership.

Fees & Membership Options: Basic membership is free (search caregivers, post a job, see applicants). Standard annual membership (post, hire, and book) starts at 1$12.95 per month. Premium annual membership starts at $19.95 per month. Check with your company as many employers include a membership to Care.com as a benefit.

Sitters to the Rescue

The Basics: Sitters to the Rescue specializes in high-quality, temporary childcare for children of all ages. Services range from last minute babysitters, to overnights, to ongoing care. They are available for vacation sitting, school breaks, child care during conventions, newborn care, and senior care.

Background Checks, etc.: All sitters are bonded and insured, have passed background checks, and are CPR and First Aid certified.

Fees & Membership Options: Services are $30/hour with a 4-hour minimum or $230 for a 24-hour period.

Sittercity

The Basics: Post a job, review qualified applicants, interview, choose. It’s as easy as it sounds with the Sittercity app. Sittercity specializes in child care and has a huge pool of sitters (it tells me there are 36 within a mile of me at this moment!).

Background Checks, etc.: Parents can purchase a background check starting at $24 for a basic criminal record. Many sitters already have background checks on file that you can request starting at $15 for a basic check.

Fees & Membership Options: The first month is $35, 3 months is $49, and a one-year membership is $98.

Solutions Home Staffing

The Basics: Solutions Home Staffing is a staffing agency working with highly qualified caretakers who are looking for professional nanny positions. They hire full and part-time nannies, house managers, caretakers, cooks, full-time housekeepers, and even domestic couples. Full-time nannies have at least three years of full-time childcare experience and will sign a contract for a minimum of one year with a new family.

Background Checks, etc.: All candidates have passed a background check, completed CPR certification, and have a clean driving record. Other checks can be requested.

Fees & Membership Options: The price for the hiring family is based on a percentage of the nanny’s contract.

Other Childcare Options

If you have a child with special needs, look into Bright Star Care where they offer nursing care and other more specialized options. If you are interested in a live-in nanny with flexible hours from around the world, visit Great AuPair which matches families with qualified nannies looking for a job in a particular part of the world.

If you can’t find a last minute babysitter, look into parents’ night out or kids’ night out options where kids can play with other kids while you go on a dinner date. Or, if you need to do some work during the day while the kids play, check out the Busy Bee Cafe where your little ones can be in sight, but occupied, while you work on your computer (and enjoy a handcrafted gourmet hot beverage).

There are tons of options for finding someone to take care of your children, but these are some of the babysitting services in the Indianapolis area that our friends and readers recommend. We know it’s hard to leave your kids with someone else, but it’s good for your mental health to get out once in a while and be alone or with other adults.

Whether you are in desperate need of a last minute babysitter or are looking for someone to be in your home regularly to nanny, tutor, keep up the house, pet sit, etc., it’s a good idea to register for some of these sites right now so you’ll be ready when you need to be away. If you plan far enough in advance, you’ll have time to get to know someone and do trial visits while you stay in the home to show them the ropes.

What are your favorite babysitting tips and recommendations? Share your comments and photos with us below or tag us on social media using #PLAYindy. Follow Indy with Kids on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and Pinterest for all of the best ideas and things to do with kids in Indy!