What’s going on behind the scenes in the Babysitters Of Boulder master calendar? Here are some solid trends worth knowing:
Busiest day for babysitting requests, and days that sell out: Tuesdays and Wednesdays!
Most popular evening sit time that gets claimed super fast: Friday nights or weekday evenings between 6:00 and 11:00 pm. Sitters are finished with their day jobs and can enjoy a fun evening of helping kids & parents, while still getting to bed on time for tomorrow’s workday.
Most popular sit length that gets rapidly claimed by a sitter: 5 to 6 hours, such as 10:00 am to 4:00 pm or 6:00 to 11:00 pm. Also, the long Saturday is popular. Example: a 10 to 12 hour sit on a Saturday while parents go skiing.
Least popular sit length and time: 3 hour sits that cut across the day don’t work well, for example 11 am to 2 pm. This reservation blocks the babysitter from stacking other morning or afternoon work, such as requests for 8 to 2 pm or 1 to 6 pm. Many babysitters wait to claim the 3 hour requests because a request that fills out more of their day may come up.
The exception is when the 3 hour sit is early enough or late enough to give the babysitter time to accept other work and stack jobs. Example: 7 am to 10 am or 6 pm to 9 pm. Either one of these times give the babysitter time to stack other morning work or afternoon work.
Best lead time to put in a babysitting request: 7 days in advance.
Worst lead time to put in a babysitting request: 2-ish days before the babysitter is needed. Example: Wednesday afternoon request for Friday morning help. We actually have higher fill rate for day-of requests than for the “almost two days in advance” requests.
Most popular weekend day: Saturday. People love picking up Saturday sits, but don’t wait until Friday to make your request. By Thursday morning, sitters start making other weekend plans if your job isn’t up on the board to be claimed.
Weekend day when babysitters are least likely to be around/reachable: Sundays. A lot of people block off this day as a family day, a no-cell-phone day, or a day when they prep for their week. Our babysitters are highly organized, reliable, and detail-oriented, and they apply that to their personal lives too.
Book early. Book often! Rest assured that we know life with kids has unexpected twists and planning early isn’t always possible. We are always sourcing and onboarding great babysitters with varied schedules to suit our clients’ needs.
#babysitting #weekends #parenting #childcare