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Are you a parent who has childless friends that are always giving you trouble for not simply ‘grabbing a sitter’ and coming out on a Friday night? Finding a sitter, especially on short notice, can be a huge pain — if not downright impossible. But, what if you could get a sitter that you trust, with the same ease as getting an Uber? Pick up your phone, hit a button, and somebody trustworthy will show up at your door to watch your kids. That’s the premise of the newly released app Sitter.
The service works by importing all your sitters’ contact information into the app. When you want to arrange to have someone watch your kids, you select a time and the app will automatically ping your network of sitters. The first one who accepts gets the job. Payment occurs through the app, meaning you don’t even have to remember cash to pay them when you return a bit tipsy.
Ok, so the app does rely on your current network of sitters, and doesn’t tap you into some magical world of on-demand Mary Poppins clones. But, that would be creepy anyway, and few people would trust a complete stranger to watch their children – even if that stranger was Julie Andrews. To get around this conundrum, Sitter allows parents to swap sitter lists with their friends with the touch of a button. So next time you’re at your kid’s play date, you can swap entire lists of friend-vetted sitters and quickly grow your network. Just make sure you trust your friends.
Sitter was founded by Kristen Stiles, a Boulder mom with two kids. Stiles’ goal is to remove the dread from what can be a laborious process of finding a sitter. So far so good, and the app is already being used in 27 states. She says most parents will be able to book a sitter using the app in around 4 minutes.
I guess you no longer have an excuse not to go out with friends this Friday night.
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