Using Care.com

[MsLaura529]

I just signed up on care.com yesterday - basic (free) membership for now. I'm a little confused by it, though.

Has anyone else had luck using it before, as a daycare provider? I haven't been able to tell the difference between people looking for a nanny or looking for a daycare. Should I be trying to contact people, advertising my home daycare, even if it sounds like they are looking for more of a nanny/babysitter (most of them don't clarify though...).

[blandino]

I have only gotten one call from care.com. Funny enough, the family that found us through care.com was the family that made me post here the first time.

I have since deleted my account, since we ended unfavorably with that DCM - and I knew that clients can write reviews - I just didn't want to deal with it.

So my only experience is that with a posting running for a year, I had one call. Maybe in different areas, clients use it to find daycare - but most people here use it to find nannies & sitters.

[EchoMom]

I've used it and liked it for awhile. In my area there were a decent amount of people using it looking for in home care. However it was mostly babysitter/nanny opportunities. I upgraded and got the background check even though I didn't need it because I had one on file somewhere else.

However, in a year I only ever got 2 clients from it, my very first ones. One of them ended on bad terms and the parent wrote a nasty review about me that they won't remove. When I complained about it they closed my account which then anyone I'd applied to it showed I'd been removed from the site and doesn't explain why. Really painted me in a bad light.

I would not use it again.

[MarinaVanessa]

I have a free basic listing as well that Ive had for a.couple of years now. I update my info when I get emails to do so but I've never gotten any clients from Care.com and I think I've ever only gotten maybe two responses to my listing. In my area there are a few FCC providers that advertise on there but I notice too that the majority of parents are looking for nanny's and babysitters.

I personally wouldn't pay any money into it unless you get a few responses first. You can try contacting some of the listings looking for childcare if its free to do so, but otherwise I wouldn't bother with that yet if you have to pay.

[Rubysmom]

I have a free account. The only responses I have gotten were people looking for something I didnt offer like nanny care or driving hild to preschool. My experience is it isnt worth upgrading.

[EAP]

I have a free account as a provider - you can't say you are a FCCH or they want you to pay for the membership - so I am a licensed provider. I have found two clients that way and been happy with the caliber of client so far. I have zero success with craigslist.

ETA: I think of FCCH as a grey area between nannies and centers and market it as small group socialization. I only care for 5 kids max, and no school age.

[MarinaVanessa]

I have a free account as a provider - you can't say you are a FCCH or they want you to pay for the membership - so I am a licensed provider. I have found two clients that way and been happy with the caliber of client so far. I have zero success with craigslist.

ETA: I think of FCCH as a grey area between nannies and centers and market it as small group socialization. I only care for 5 kids max, and no school age.

That's funny ... I have a huge success rate with CL which is why I prefer it over any other method. I have gotten the majority of my inquiries from CL, the rest from a regular Google search and a few from referrals either by clients or from the local resource & referral agency.

Maybe the area has a lot to do with it too.

[melilley]

I agree with MV, CL has given me the most success from advertising! All of my families have found me through CL. I am full as of next Monday and just opened at the end of January, with my first family starting at the end of February. I tried Care.com, but couldn't find anywhere to list as a provider, only a babysitter or nanny, but I heard they will have an option for home providers in the near future. And I had to put in an amount for pay and it wouldn't let me charge below $5 an hour (or something like that) and I charge way less than that. Maybe I used it wrong?.

[momofboys]

I have gotten a few kids from Care.com - my biggest beef with them is they now have this Job Wizard (for lazy parents IMO) & so they don't really write an AD per se, just mark boxes & Care will write the ad but it ends up being sooooooo generic it is hard to tell what kind of caregiver the parents want (just says silly things like - Must Love Kids - well duhhhhh OR Caregivers who enjoy reading get bonus points, double DUH . I have had slightly more success with Craigslist but Care has been good to me also.

[Michelle]

I have gotten a few kids from Care.com - my biggest beef with them is they now have this Job Wizard (for lazy parents IMO) & so they don't really write an AD per se, just mark boxes & Care will write the ad but it ends up being sooooooo generic it is hard to tell what kind of caregiver the parents want (just says silly things like - Must Love Kids - well duhhhhh OR Caregivers who enjoy reading get bonus points, double DUH . I have had slightly more success with Craigslist but Care has been good to me also.

oh wow! I was wondering about that!
I didn't know about the job wizard, I thought they were all spam type ads..
yea some are really stupid sounding, I really like the personal written ones..

[mom2many]

I have gotten only one family from care.com and have my daycare listed with the free account services. I have considered upgrading, but have never needed to do that yet.

I have never had much luck with Craigs List & only gotten one part time family from there.

I rely mainly on word of mouth and referrals from current/past families and friends of mine.

I used to get referrals from several different agencies, but nothing recently.

[MCC]

I think I'm the odd one out here. I had very little success with CL and no one wanted to pay my rates. I got a business account on care.com and now I have a full house and a wait list with 4 families on it.

I do not like, care.com as far as being user friendly, or even there customer service. Not to mention the fact the I pay the same $140 that Kindercare does for my account, but I have had a lot of success.

I also hate that I have to have an account as a parent and a separate account as a provider (if I wanted to find a sitter for my kid)

[Sunchimes]

I got my first family from care.com over 2 years. I placed an ad on Friday and had a family by Sunday night. I didn't know about interviews etc back then and took the baby sight unseen starting Monday morning. Still have that little girl and now have her little brother as well. But, I haven't had a single call since then.

It seems that the site has changed some since then and I've had no luck there-it appears to be more nanny centered, as has been mentioned.

However, a week or so ago, I got an email from care.com that said it was adding a section for family home care beginning April 18. I'm 99% sure it was care.com, but I can't find the email to verify.

[MsLaura529]

Ok, so I'm not totally lost on it as far as not finding an actual family home provider label, haha. I guess I'll see what happens for a while. Thanks for your input!

[LaLa1923]

Ugh......... I've had zero luck with cl!!