Where to find a babysitter?

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I was talking with a friend of mine whose sister has a medium functioning autistic teenage son. She says that her sister needs to find a babysitter for him now that she's gone back to work and sometimes needs to go out in the evening, but she really can't hire a neighborhood teenager, etc like many parents can.

She doesn't need someone with a medical background or anything, but she does need someone who understands autism and can do certain things that she has to do and can deal with him when he has meltdowns etc. He's also a pretty big guy now and strong so dealing with him during a meltdown can take some skill.

She said that her sister told her that there are sitter agencies for kids and adults and they will send out a sitter capable of staying with people with all different needs, but they cost more than she makes an hour at work. She just needs a regular person who she can pay to stay a few hours or sometimes 24 hours when she goes out of town.

Where would she find something like that? I suggested she tell her sister to talk to the school. Maybe one of the aids would be interested in picking up some extra cash, and they would know him already. I hadn't thought about that particular problem before. The only babysitter we have ever used is my mother or mother in law, really. When my oldest was about 14, we would let him babysit the others and then went from there until they were old enough to stay on their own. Mine are NT's and after reading this parents forum for a while, it never crossed my mind that finding a babysitter would be a problem.

How do you folks find one? There are no relatives in the state where her sister lives, and the usual options of friends or sending the kid to stay at a friend of his overnight etc isn't an option for them. Where do parents of kids who are more autistic and can't be on their own as teenagers find sitters, especially if the kid is a big boy and has frequent meltdowns?

Is there a member of the boy's family that might be readily available? Perhaps a grandparent?

First of all, she should check with her state's department of human services to find out how to access free respite care; most states offer this. Autism Speaks generally has good listings of where to go.

Second, if there isn't any, or if the wait is too long, have her contact local schools of social work and special education and see if there are students who would be willing to take this on. Some service providers have part-time staff, too, who moonlight as babysitters. The local autism society may have a recommendation or a message board where she can post a request.

You could try finding a home daycare. Usually they network together pretty well (out of my experience). Say what you are trying to find and there would hopefully be a teenager that helps out at one of their parents daycares or something like that. Or go to a church and say your situation and see if one of the helpers there would want to earn some extra money.

None of her family live in the state. She's a single mom. Her sister is my friend and she was telling me about what was going on. Up until now she's stayed at home with him when he hasn't been at school. He goes to summer programs in the summer. She was able to stay home as well for a while because of child support and alimony but it's a complicated story and I don't know about it all I just know that she doesn't get it anymore.

I don't know the lady at all, only her sister, but I've heard about all sorts of her problems. This was one that just made me wonder. Having an older special needs kid might make it hard to find a babysitter. I didn't think about that until I heard about this.

I have AS, and although I was very overprotected, I was also very mature. I was left on my own taking care of a grandmother who was at home dying of cancer when I was 11 years old. My mother had to work and she was a nurse, and she taught me how to take care of her. I was giving shots, and doing all sorts of things at 11. My friends nephew couldn't stay by himself for an hour even. He can't do much in the way of self care without help and can't fix himself anything to eat or do anything like that. He really has to be told what to do and when to do it, because left to himself he will either sit in his room and draw all day or panic if he ralizes he's there alone. She can't even leave him there alone for ten minutes while she runs to the store for milk or something. Now she's going to have to go out of town on overnight things occasionally and she's got to find somebody for that too.

Another avenue your friend's sister should attempt is reporting the child support/alimony situation to the state. Most states have some sort of assistance to help collect. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bradley_Amendment

Our tax dollars are supposed to be out there working for us. Getting through the red tape can sometimes be a pain, but it's important that we use the supports our governments offer us, otherwise, they are less and less likely to be available.

She could put out an ad in the local college paper for a college student who wants experience working with someone on the autism spectrum. One who are working on a degree in special education or child psychology would likely be interested.

Wow, I feel for her being in a situation where she needs someone overnight. I have had good luck with people from my son's preschool babysitting but that's only for a few hours at most. An aid or teacher from the boy's school would be a good choice if any of them could do it since he would know the person and the person would know him. We are lucky to be in a college town with a college that has a good rep for it's elementary education program. I just recently hired a young woman from the school to help us part time. Both of my son's like her a lot. If your friend's sister doesn't have a college nearby and no one from his school would be available she might ask the school if anyone who is in their substitute teacher pool might be able to handle the job.

http://www.freevideosforautistickids.co ... tters.html

I have personally used sittercity.com and care.com and have been very happy with the results. You just place an ad and tons of nannies and sitters (specify the child's age and disability, etc., in the ad) and start getting responses. The care.com website even has a section for special needs. The sittercity.com website allows you to click on certain qualifications (autism experience, teaching experience, etc.) when running a search. The nannies will post profiles of themselves. It works a lot like a on-line dating service.

Searching for someone this way is a lot cheaper than going through a nanny placement agency.

Word of warning, though, whomever your friend gets to care for her child will expect more money than your local high school student gets. $ 15/hour or more here in Austin, Texas, depending on age, education, experience, and other factors.

Back in the day, I actually found an amazing nanny through a newspaper ad. It works fine if you are good at doing interviews and pre-interview phone screenings, but not if you aren't.

Before that, we had used a referral from a friend.

I always had professionals watch my kids, never more than part time. It costs a ton, but with a special needs child it just makes sense.

There are tax and reporting requirements to go with it all, by the way.