Would you leave your kids with a complete stranger? New app dubbed the ‘Uber of babysitting’ promises childcare at the touch of a button
Mums have mixed feelings over app that allows you to find sitter within an hour
AN APP for parents dubbed the "Uber of babysitting" is getting mixed reviews from parents.
The Hello Sitter app allows disorganised or desperate parents to swipe their way through a choice of available sitters and have someone at their door within an hour.
Parents then pay the carer between £14 an hour for one child and £17.50 an hour for four, plus a cab fare of up to £13.
The service – which is being trialled in New York - provides vetting and online videos, to help parents choose.
But some are still a bit freaked out at the thought of leaving their little ones with a complete stranger.
Mum-of-four Emily Kaplan asked: “How do you vet them? When I get a babysitter I want to know who their parents are, who they’ve babysat for and who they know. “
But mum Sai De Silva, who has a four-year-old called London Scout, was a fan.
She told the New York Post: “I love it. One of the sitters was an opera singer!”
Of the three other Hello Sitters her family tried, one worked in a boutique; the other two were college students.
“They were in their 20s and 30s,” said Sai. “They can run around with children.”
The prices are fixed and there’s no sign-up or membership charge.
Hello Sitter insists it carefully vets its caregivers, running criminal background checks and what they call a full social media account review.
Parents, too, are vetted, for the safety of the sitters, although the agency is vague on how.
“Trust is definitely a big thing,” said the app’s founder, Lauren Mansell.
Hello Sitter is fully insured. She added: “We do have people who want to meet the sitter first for an hour before leaving.”
The service is dividing parents, however.
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Jessica van Itallie, 41 — mum to a 9-year-old boy, “I’m old-school. I haven’t even gotten into the Uber world.”
Having someone sit your children isn’t the same as getting in a cab, notes mum-of-two Kerry Mcnally, 37 who flatly says, “I wouldn’t use it.”
Camila Santiago, a 24-year-old mum adds: “You can have no criminal record and still be a psycho.”
But many others are willing to give it a test drive, particularly in an emergency.
“If I need a sitter last minute, I’d be okay with it,” said Nicole Roberts, 34, a consultant and mum to a two-year-old girl and a six-month-old twin girls.
“Not as much as Uber, but I’d use it in a pinch.”
