RERUN: babysitting co-op anyone???

There wasn't enough interest last time I posted, but its a new school year around the corner, and babies are older now, so I thought I'd put this idea out again.

***Everything in italics I copied from a family friend's blog, referred to me by my mom. We wouldn't have to have the same time slots or rules, this is just what worked for the group in Idaho.***

If you are interested please let me know!

YOU MUST READ THIS!!!
Sorry for the dramatic headline, but I really want all of my friends to learn about the greatest "mommy" help in the world! It is our babysitting co-op, and it has saved my life, and the lives of many other women here in Coeur d'Alene who participate. Please read about it, and then you will definately want to start one in your area.

It goes like this:

10 shifts a week, 10 ladies involved.Each person takes a day, Monday through Friday, and a shift, either 9-12 or 12-3 (we did those times b/c it works perfect with 8:50 school drop off and 3:15 school pick-up).

It works on a ticket system. Each kid and each hour is one, 1-hour ticket. So I have Wednesday mornings from 9-12. Today I had 3 kids from 9-10:00am (3 tickets), and 2 kids from 9-12 (6 tickets). I just earned 9 tickets. I can drop off Jane Monday morning while I go to the office (3), thursday morning while I go to the gym (2), and drop off Braden and Jane for 2 hours Friday afternoon while I get my house ready to leave on the cruise (4 tickets) and I break even.It works because it's totally fair. If you babysit, you have tickets, if you run out, you run out. We all did start with 20 hours of tickets to begin with which works really well.

There are rules, like:

-call at least 30 minutes before (preferably the night before)
-no sick kids
-kids must be at least 10 months old
-NO being late
-you decide how many kids you want, you can always say you are full
-if you can't do it, switch with someone or email as soon as you know
-everyone needs to try to use it at least once/week to keep tickets distributed

We made up our own rules and you could too. whatever works for everyone in the group.We do have a few girls who haven't been using it hardly at all and people keep using them to babysit. So they have tons of tickets and just don't have as much of a need to use it, however they want the option to use it if they need to. So we just switched around a few people and gave this girl a less popular afternoon that we found rarely gets used and gave another girl (who uses it all the time) the Tuesday morning she had that seems to be used a lot.

I hope it's all making sense. I wish I had this in Seattle during dental school, and in Salt Lake when I had so many wonderful friends I would have loved and trusted to do this with!A few random things: If you only have 6 or 8 girls that want to do it, you can still do it. Pick the times you want to have it available and schedule those times! Also, you may have weeks that you don't need it at all, and weeks you need it 3 or 4 times (like me this week!) You may have times you have 10 kids at your house (if you choose to have that many) and weeks you have 1 or even none!I promise, if you participate, you'll love it. You'll never need to find someone to watch your kids again when you have a doctors appointment, want to volunteer at the school, go to the gym, or just want to clean your house without a 2 year old helper! I even have a friend who has a 2-month-old who sometimes uses it to take a nap!If you have any questions, leave a comment and i'll answer it!