Sitter City. Com

I'm thankful I've never been in the position of having to hire a stranger to watch my child. Even the hotel & resort sitters--the idea kind of creeps me out.

I am not bashing sittercity at all. What I am saying is that it's not better than the paper or craigslist. It's just another site to list our services and for parents to compare providers. The people behind sittercity really don't do much except for ban a few people AFTER complaints.

Sitter city is just like Craigslist if they charged. They really are not an agency. Anyone can sign up and they are not choosy at all. I have stopped paying the 20 bucks for their micky mouse background check. It's not thorough and my money is just wasted. People are so gullable! They think they are getting something when in fact they aren't. Save your pennies and just do your own background checks.

We hired a girl off of sittercity and she pushed my 4 year old. As soon as I found out she was fired. Our morning sitter is also from sittercity and I have very few complaints with her.

There are teachers and politicians who have been nabbed for the same reason, some people are just that stupid.

It is the responsiblity of the parents to ensure the provider they pick is safe. Sadly, our nanny for three weeks came with great references, we did a background and a criminal check on her, and she seemed great. Not so much. I informed sittery city of what she did and she has been booted from the site. I also got emails from other sitters who were booted.

Sittercity goes to great lengths to ensure only appropriate people are on the site. The rest falls on the parents.

I have been using Sitter City to find sitters for the past 4 years. As with ANY method of hiring a stranger, it is the parents' job to check the references of the sitters they are hiring. I have no problem with Sitter City advertising on Mamapedia.

I LOVE sittercity.com and recommend it often! You have to check references and backgrounds on your own to be completely sure of things, and even then from ANYWHERE some bad person can slip through. It's a great way to find tons of qualified, experienced sitters and nannies. And actually, I'll google it, but I haven't heard any bad stories about sittercity.com.

We found our sitter through sittercity.com, and we love her. Of course, we did our own legwork and checked things out, but since we don't know any sitters in our neighborhood and don't have family around, it was really the only option for us. We met several good sitters, and are very pleased with the one we settled on.

I bet some of those guilty of child pron used the internets. That annoys me too.

I know of a couple of moms on here with daughters who are reliable on the site. Thank you Robbie F!

That said, I posted for an overnight sitter for my daughter ( now 17) a few yrs ago when I needed to go to a conference with hubby and they matched me with an older guy( later 20's ish) ! WHAT? Needless to say, I never inquired again.

Like I'd leave my young tween with an older 20 something overnight! Crazy

I had reliable college aged girls from a family we knew well in our neighborhood. I prefer networking within your area to find a good fit.

I am a professional nanny who has found many great family to babysit for on my spare time via SitterCity. I feel that site is the same as any other- some people are legitimate and other just aren't. Same goes for craigslist or any other social site. Use you're best judgement, do a few phone interviews and CHECK REFERENCES! Obviously things slip though the crack but there really are great sitters on that site.

Actually, I found an awesome sitter through Sittercity, but we had to let her go because my husband lost his job. And I will use it again when we need a sitter in the future. Just as any other source, you have to be careful and really weed out the bad ones. There were plenty of sitters I had contacted that never responded to my request to interview, and one never showed up.

I’m with and in the same position as A.C. in Cincinnati on this one. I also found my daughters sitter through sittercity.com. I originally had her in a home daycare with someone I found on sitter city. I too don't know any sitters in my neighborhood and don't have family in this state so this was really the only option for me. Her original babysitter was AWESOME! She had two daughters of her own that were in kindergarten and she also watched a little boy that was 6 months older than my daughter. I loved her as did my daughter. Unfortunately, her husband was transferred to NY so I was in the position of having to find someone else. I also found her next in home sitter on sitter city and was again very fortunate to have found her as well. She was a blessing and my daughter loved her and her daughter. She also watched a little boy that was my daughter’s age. Even more unfortunate than before, they discovered that their 4 yo daughter had cancer so she was unable to care for other children anymore. From that point I felt it was important to just go ahead and place her in a daycare center for the social and learning interaction. With that said, I also found an on-call babysitter from sitter city that I use when I have to work on a weekend day, when I plan an evening out, etc. and she has been great.

I’m sorry to hear the story you mentioned about sitter city as I have not previously hear anything bad about them.

I still would encourage anyone to do the same thing and do your own checking, initiate a back-ground check outside of the web site, follow up on references, check your state websites for reporting on in home daycares, etc. Also, for the people that I used off of sitter city I only used people that were also registered with the state I live in as the state maintains information on registered individuals as well.

I have had GREAT experiences through sitter city. They cannot be responsible for feeling out every person that is listed on their site. After all it is not a nanny service. You as a parent do have the option of only selecting individuals who have had a background check (which would show felony charges) but not all sitters opt into that. Sitter city is a great way to find potential sitters but ultimately it is up to the parents to check references and get a background check.

I am so annoyed with that site. I can not get myself " Posted " I am always : Rejected : UGH ! So guess I will never be able to apply for jobs in need because of it. I think care.com is kinda similar...... so yes, I think it is difficult advertising. But it is great someone can get some resource from it.