If you’ve tried to get a babysitter this summer, you may have found it’s harder than you realize, especially at the last minute. Even after you hire a new babysitter, how do you know this is the right person for your family.
Meet Ifrah Khan. She is the Founder of Usit, the last minute babysitting app that connects busy parents to vetted college student babysitters in their community. Ifrah was named one of Atlanta Inno’s 25 under 25 entrepreneurs in 2018 and has a passion for how technology can help create new communities and opportunities in dual sided marketplaces. She just completed Atlanta Tech Village’s Pre-Accelerator and is focusing on disrupting the babysitting industry by turning what used to be a huge pain in the butt for both parents and sitters into an easy and exciting process. Ifrah supports and brings together other young entrepreneurs with her position as a Kairos Society Executive with a mission of focusing the next generation on problems worth solving. She graduated from Emory University’s undergraduate business school in 2017 and previously worked in Finance at Accenture. Although she’s not a mom, she is passionate about helping mothers and children in need which is why she serves on the board of Helping Mamas, a fast growing local Atlanta non-profit aimed to help moms and children in need.
Khan was even nice enough to offer some tip for finding a babysitter.
“There’s a huge trust barrier when picking a babysitter for one’s child. Parent’s even change their schedule to accommodate in order to get one of their favorite sitters as opposed to somebody else”
1. When deciding on how you will find a sitter, do your research. Ask your friends what they use to find sitters – they probably won’t want to share their sitters with you, but they definitely will share the platforms they use and trust to find sitters.
2. Choose a platform that vets the sitters for you. This means more than just a background check. Care and Urbansitter do minimal vetting and that puts a bigger onus on you on top of all the other work you have to do. Make it easy for yourself and look into platforms that do more. With a 4 step vetting process, Usit that makes it easy and safe to find sitters near you.
3. Make sure your sitter is background checked and you have a handful of parent reviews to read about them. Background checks give you piece of mind, especially when you do not know the sitter personally. Parent reviews also go a long way and it’s really important to get a sense of the sitter’s babysitting experience through reviews.
4. Try to get a sense of your sitter’s personality to see if they would be compatible with not only your kids but you, your spouse, and your house. Look at their profile on the sitter finding platform you use and see what they like to do for fun, what activities they are involved with, and how much effort they’ve put into their profile. Request more information if you’re still not sure.
5. Request your newly hired sitter to come 30 minutes early while you are still at the house. This will help you to get a sense of how your sitter interacts and warms up to the kids, how he/she is personality wise, and for your piece of mind, you should request your newly hired sitter to come early. Make sure you let he/she know the “do’s and don’ts” because some things like “no tv” or “clean up after the kids” aren’t as intuitive as you’d think if you don’t flat out say it.
“The market for parents with non traditional work hours is growing rapidly, Current babysitting platforms don’t solve the child care needs for this market and that’s where Usit comes into play with an easy to use platform that helps you get a qualified and vetted sitter within minutes of posting your babysitting need”
An Atlantan looking out for your kids and your family. See more at: https://www.usit.care/
