I see the reason for babysitters at events but I would not offer it. Couple of reasons - 1. Where would they watch the kids. 2. Ages - babies not so much. 3. how many is too many kids. 4. If there is an issue or something happens...well you get my point.
To continue with my #4 - I actually feel this way about events where your child is supervised by PTO volunteers. An example is the Roller Skating Events. So many parents don't come - the responsibility that the PTO's take on is huge. I know it all seems to work out and children haven't been lost but still.
Anyway - An alternative that we are going to try -form a babysitter list. High School students would give us there first name - number - experience - wage - and would allow the PTO to publish the list for parents to use at there own risk. Or reverse that - get the parents name - # - # of kids - and let the high school kids who want to babysit call them. It will be marketed much better than that. That way the PTO doesn't take on the risk.
We also have been using HS students who need community service hours. It's worked out great for the kids -- who like being with the big kids; the babysitters --who get a couple of easy volunteer hours logged; and the parents who are able to come to our meetings. But, I was just reading the details of our new insurance policy and it said that babysitting should only be provided by 2 adults over 18. We have a hard enough time getting parents to come to the meetings, I don't know how we'd recruit volunteers to babysit. We don't have the budget to pay babysitters each month. Is anyone else addressing this issue?
Thanks!
Our group has found that when we offer adult-supervised free events for the kids during our PTO meeting nights, we have wonderful attendance. This has been successful for the past 2 years and we will continue the tradition again. With the schedule set up for the year, we appoint chairpeople to these events in advance and send out a questionnaire to our parents at the beginning of the year to see which event they want to volunteer at. If you would like a list of these events & descriptions I will be more than happy to post them here or email them to you! For events other than meetings, we have used early childhood education majors from local high schools & colleges to watch over the kids while their parents attend adult-only activities, such as our volunteer orientation dinner or during conferences. ~ Lori
We have used an older sibling for some of the sitter services and pay $10.00 perhour. You might also contact your local high school, most need community service hours for graduation,
We have at least one adult volunteer and we use the 7th and 8th grade NJHS students to babysit for the children of our members while we have meetings. It helps the parents who would like to participate and it also helps the NJHS students who need volunteer hours. sefms
