About Care.com
Care.com is one of the most popular and reputed sites that connects parents with care providers. The website is not a scam and has been confirmed to be working in helping parents find nannies and help nannies find clients.
The service has been around for several years and has received good commendations and negative criticism in equal measure. This has left a lot of working moms in a dilemma of whether the service is worth using anymore.
This post covers the truth about the pros and cons of care.com, whether it is safe and reliable and if you should use the service for finding a nanny or babysitter for your child.
How Does care.com work?
Care.com is an online platform that connects parents with care providers. It is one of the best websites or apps that working moms rely on to find caregivers such as nannies or babysitters.
It works by allowing parents and nannies or caregivers the same platform to interact on. Parents use the service to find suitable nannies by posting for jobs. Nannies create a profile on the platforms which a hiring family can review. Hence the services brings hiring parents and nannies together.
Many parents considers care.com one of the best ways to find a good nanny or babysitter. However you have to pay in order to be able to use this service. Without a premium account at care.com, most of the features are not available to you and you may not be able to connect with a nanny or babysitter there.
Read here for the current payments rate for care.com
Care.com Best Features in Finding a Nanny
1. Care.com Offers a Variety of Caregivers
One good thing about care.com is that it has attracted a lot of diverse applicants. It is a highly reputable site because it meets the variety of needs for working moms. It has babysitters, nannies etc
Also when you post for a nanny position, you are bound to receive many applications from diverse nannies. You now have a variety to choose from and will likely find some that you are looking for. You will find it easy to match your needs with an applicant through the service.
In addition, the service is not only good for finding nannies. You can use Care.com to find elderly care, running errands, housekeeping, pet sitting, and tutoring jobs, among others. Such services are crucial for any working parent, and hence you get to use the service to help you find caregivers in a variety of needs.
2. Care.com is Affordable and Convenient
Care.com also is reputed for offering convenience and is one way of finding a good nanny. As a working mom, saving time and convenience is essential to you. You, therefore, need a service that will conveniently link you with a nanny without you wasting too much time and effort.
While you still have to do a lot of background checks, interviews, and trials, the hustle is not the same as when you have to traditionally look for a nanny from scratch. Also Care.com is is worth using, legitimate and not a rip-off, and you will get what you pay for.
3. Care.com is Easy to Use
The site has been voted as relatively easy to use in finding a good nanny or baby sitter. From creating a profile, posting an ad, or signing up, among others, the process is pretty straightforward. In addition, the service now has a mobile app which makes everything easier.
4. Care.com is Safe for Finding Nannies
In the internet and advanced technology world, privacy has become an issue on the sites that parents use to find nannies or babysitter. Privacy is crucial when using the internet and one of the benefits of Care.com are its privacy features that make it very safe and reliable for finding caregiver such as nannies and babysitters.
Care.com is very good at keeping everyone relatively anonymous until you’re ready to share personal information. If you send a message containing an email address or phone number, you will be prompted first to confirm that you’re sure you want to share that information.
Also there is a communication mechanism that allows you to send emails via their site or reply to emails in your email client. All these safety features are put in place to ensure that care.com is safe to use for parents and caregivers alike.
As such many parents consider care.com the best site to use to find caregivers, especially in comparing care.com with sittercity or other websites for finding nannies or babysitters.
Revealed: Top Reasons you Should Not Use Care.com
1. Care.com is too Expensive for Some Moms
One of the drawbacks about Care.com is that it is a paid service and therefore you must pay the premium subscription costs to use it. It means users with an account on the website must pay a fee.
However, this fee has been considered a ridiculous high compared to other services. Many are concerned about the amount that they have to pay at care.com and consider this one of its main drawbacks.
I have a friend who complained about the price she has to pay at care.com and demanded her money back. I have also come across other care.com reviews that complain about the pricing and whether it is worth paying. As such it is not recommended for working moms who are struggling financially.
You also have to pay for several background checks to upgrade your status in addition to the membership cost. Given so many have concluded care.com fee makes it too expensive compared to the service rendered. The high price makes parents unsubscribe once they have a list of potential caregivers to interview.
Read: A comparison of sittercity.com
2. Care.Com has Poor Customer Service
There have been complaints by care.com users about issues in getting their ads approved. Despite the website having guidelines used in approving ads, sometimes ads are removed. In addition, customer care is too slow in responding to any inquiries. It is hence not advised to use care.com if you need a nanny urgently.
3. Users are Poor in Responding Requests
I have heard about this complaint too many times and it comes across as one of the major disadvantages of care.com. Hiring parents have to go through a bunch of flaky nannies who wouldn’t respond.
Also there are so many nannies that will contact you saying they were interested and then never respond further. Others are no-shows for in-person interviews. These complaints have constantly shown up in many care.com reviews.
Also there are late notifications of messages. They may prevent you from replying in a decent time. Therefore you are not in a position to find a caregiver urgently. As such do not rely too heavily on care.com for finding nannies urgently.
Read : How to Find a Nanny or Baby Sitter Fast
4. Care.com does Poor Credibility Checks
It would appear that care.com allows just about anybody to use their service. This explains why there are so many questionable and unprofessional profiles on the service one goes through before finding a quality nanny.
For this reason many parents or working moms are hesitant to use the website. When you post an ad, you will get a LOT of under qualified people. You definitely have to contact a lot more people before you get down to the last few that you actually want to interview.
5. Finding a Caregiver is Time Consuming
When resorting to using an online care service, working parents are looking to find a good nanny as soon as possible. However, the process of finding a nanny through care.com is notoriously slow.
It is ends up being inconvenient as it will take a reasonable amount of time before you can find some. If you are trying to find a nanny in the short term or within little, reviews of care.com indicate that you may get disappointed.
Read: How to Find a Nanny or Baby Sitter Fast
How to use Care.com to Get a Nanny/Babysitter Fast
1. Put up a Detailed Post
Detail your post with as much critical information as possible.
- Making your post specific and detailed helps you narrow down to the person highly likely to match your needs.
- Includes things such as certifications you need if your baby has a necessary condition, the presence of a pet, what you’re looking for, what the job entails, what hours you may need, and what style you’re looking for, among others.
The details will help you in weeding out inappropriate nannies who are not a match to your needs early in the process.
Read: Minimal Requirements to Ask for Before Hiring a Nanny
2. Give Post Time to Attract Good Applicants
Whether you put it up on care.com or any other online platform, it may take some time before getting credible responses. You are likely to receive tons of applications once your post is published.
However, you need to wait for a week before going through these applications to allow reliable and credible responses to accumulate.
3. Filter you Responses to Create a Shortlist
Understand that you may not be able to respond to everyone. The site has a button for “No Thanks” that allows you to decline applications with courtesy . This tip will help acknowledge receipt of applications and typically reject them without explaining your reason.
4. Avoid Applications with Redflags
Look for red flags that indicate unprofessionalism and lack of authenticity. Look for responses that are;
- Without a formal letter
- Has typo errors
- Generic default responses, among others.
Since you cannot really see the person making the application online, you can judge their professionalism by analyzing how they make the application. If they seem unprofessional, discard them.
Read: Common Nanny Red-flags to Look Out for
5. Screen Applications by Location
Screening applications with location is crucial when trying to find a good nanny or babysitter online. Favour the applications that are closer to you. If you find a match with a nanny that lives farther from you, they are likely to look for a job closer to the location, and you are back at the process again.
6. Pick Several Applications
Choose several potential nannies. You may only be able to choose one now, but you want to try to line up date night sitters or if your first choice falls through. The secret to finding good nannies is ensuring that you also have a reliable backup as good as your first choice.
7. Maintain Honest through the Hiring Process
Honest is crucial in finding a good nanny for any online network source such as care.com. During the first in-person meeting, be honest about your expectations and give all the information the applicants need to know, such as the presence of nanny cameras.
It ensures that your hired nannies are comfortable with everything and know what they’re getting into.
8. Review your Rates Ahead of time
If you can’t afford a certain amount, be honest. If the applicant’s range requested is more than what you can afford, be upfront with it. The secret tip will save you from dealing with frustrations later in the hiring process when your pay does not match the nanny’s expectations.
9. Have Patience with the Process
Give yourself plenty of time to find the right nanny . The whole hiring process takes a lot of time if you want someone who will meet your needs.
Therefore start the process earlier before the actual time you need the nanny to start working for you. Doing so will help find a good nanny at care.com fast.
Read: How to Conduct a Short Nanny Trial
10. Alternatively Pick Nanny from Applicants Postings
As an alternative to posting a job, you can go through the applicant postings and interview some contenders you think are a good match for you.
It is a secret that is excellent for finding a good nanny on care.com or any other online service within short notice.
Last Word!
It is apparent that using care.com has been worth it for some parents and not worth it for some. It’s hit or miss.
Nonetheless, the process you will follow in hiring your nanny might be more important than the source. Even if you do get a nanny from care.com, the process of background check, interview, and trial is more important than the source of the nanny.
It is similar to finding a nanny through local mom groups or mom interest groups when you must do the extra work verifying that the nanny meets your needs.
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