Gosh, babysitting is a big issue at our school too. We used to offer it for parties, meetings and other school day events. It was run strictly by volunteers. However, lately no one will volunteer to run it for many of the same reasons you all have had - it's a lot of work, and there are too many kids. We tried hiring outside help as well. But they were not reliable.
We allow kids at our PTO meetings but we do ask that the parents keep them quiet. We have a box of crayons, coloring books and paper that we put out for them to use. That seems to work because it's a quiet activity. We used to pull out a large bin of toys - as you can imagine, it got WAY out of hand!
We are currently looking for a new solution because babysitting is really needed. I'll post one if we get one!
tamster we actually had the same problem this year, not only that but we had as many as 25 kids each month. We actually have elminated it for now, the last two meetings we have had a table set up in the corner of the room where we are at, I announce that there is no child care and the parent has the option of leaving if they wanted. One month I did try with two high school kids and that didnt work. We were using a paid district employee but word got out that it was too much so no one wanted to do it! I think sometimes people forget that childcare is something that is an extra, meaning if your spouse is home then why cant he watch you three kids. We had alot of that going on and now we are trying to curtail that. I do plan on bringing it back this spring, hopefully after parents realize the real purpose of it. Good luck with yours...
"When you stop learning you stop growing."
Do you have sitters designated to monitor the children? We use middle school/high school students and have the kids in the gym. The sitters keep things from getting out of hand and play organized games that all the children can participate in. We also limit what types of items can be played with when we have really small children, such as no footballs and the basketballs are limited to a specific area.
We offer childcare at our meetings, to encourage parents to come.
However, recently we've had kids of all ages attending and things have been getting a little to roudy.
Does anyone have a childcare policy they use for meetings?
Thanks !
Tam
