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What goes in the Childcare newsletter?
- Parents looking for & recommending babysitters
- Nanny share connections between parents
- Home-based daycare and childcare centers
- Childcare providers offering care
- Teen babysitters offering care
- Babysitting exchanges between parents
Berkeley Parents Network is a parent-to-parent advice network. We do
not accept advertising. However, as a service to our parent members,
we post messages from local babysitters who are seeking clients.
If you live in the area around Berkeley, CA and you are an
individual who babysits, you can subscribe to the BPN and then
use one of our web forms to
post a message to our weekly email newsletters. Here are the
instructions:
BPN subscribers People who care for children (who live in our area) are welcome to join the
list using the Subscribe Form.
Members of the Berkeley Parents Network can post to the
Childcare Newsletter under "Childcare Provider Offering Care"
or "Daycare Openings".
teenagers If you are a teenager who babysits, and your parent is a
subscriber of either the Berkeley Parents Network or Parent of Teens, you or your parent can
submit a post for you to the Childcare Newsletter under
"Teen subscriber offering to babysit".
We are not permitted by the
University to accept advertising and we cannot publish
postings that advertise commercial businesses.
Therefore, we can't accept unsolicited postings from agencies about openings or
services they provide.
However, as with the other BPN newsletters, if you are a BPN subscriber
you can respond to subscribers' requests for nanny agency referrals, and you can recommend
your own agency in response to a request for a nanny agency.
Nanny agencies may not send email to BPN subscribers
who have posted a "nanny wanted" message in the Childcare newsletter
unless an agency was specifically requested.
I saw a babysitter at the park neglecting her charges - please
post my report.
We sometimes get email from parents who want to report on a babysitter they have
seen at the park neglecting her charges, or behaving in some
other way the parent disapproves of. It is BPN's policy not to publish
messages like this in the newsletter, and we cannot accept postings
that have the intent of putting observers in contact with parents.
If you feel that you have witnessed child abuse or neglect
by a parent or a sitter or anyone else, the BPN is NOT the right place
to report it. Report it immediately to Child Protective
Services, or the local police. This is the very best way to
protect the child.
Here are some phone numbers that might be of assistance:
Child Protective Services(Alameda County): (510)259-1800
Berkeley Police: (510)644-5658
Oakland Police: (510)238-3333
The Berkeley
Parents Network is not in a position to take any action on
reports of child neglect or abuse. Therefore we urge you to
report it to the appropriate agencies.
If what you have
observed is NOT abuse or neglect, such as a parent or
babysitter speaking unkindly or too loudly to a child, then BPN recommends
that you say nothing.
It is impossible to know what the full story is if you don't know the parents,
don't know the babysitter, and don't know the child.
It would be irresponsible of BPN to
publish a damaging report about a person based on the brief observations of a
stranger.
It is not the goal of BPN to be a "spy network" where
stay-at-home moms are reporting back to working parents about
babysitters' activities they
observed at the park that they disapprove of.
We assume that those of us who hire babysitters have
interviewed and called references and are comfortable with the care our
children are receiving from the babysitter.
To get the best response to your posting in the Childcare newsletter,
we recommend the following:
- Make sure your heading is specific. See Choosing a heading for your post for hints. Be sure to include the neighborhood you are
interested in.
- If you are looking for a nanny share, be clear in your post
about what your requirements are, but keep in mind that the more
flexible you can be about hours and locality, the better response you
will get.
- If you are looking for a nanny, be aware that most nannies want
to work full time. If you need fewer than 40 hours a week, be prepared
to arrange a share with other families who can provide the nanny with
additional hours.
- Make sure you are posting to the correct section. Your post may not
be read
if it appears in the wrong section.
- If you are looking for a teenage sitter, please read
Advice about Teen Sitters
and also make sure you post your message to the Parents of Teens newsletter.
- If you still have questions about why your post is not getting
responses, feel free to ask the Childcare moderator (email address is
on the newsletter) or send an email to the BPN administrator.
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Last updated: Feb 5, 2009
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