The AD on the massive increase in demand for babysitters
Ever since schools closed again, the demand for a babysitter has skyrocketed. Children are taught online at home, which complicates the situation for parents who also work from home. Employers can therefore offer a business babysitter, so that parents can remain focused on work while the babysitter watches the children and supports them with homeschooling. The AD visited the babysitting family of our Babysitting Angel Madelon.
Article by Kim Visbeen
Parents are arranging a babysitter en masse: ,,They have nowhere to take their kids, but work continues on’’
Working from home and helping, entertaining, feeding, and changing the children: not an ideal combination. And babysitting platforms see that too. ,,The number of requests has exploded.’’
Madelon de Groot (19) is preparing lunch for the child she babysits. She just took the oldest, aged nine, to a friend, with his six-year-old brother eagerly awaiting an afternoon full of fun games. She has been babysitting for years, here in the Rotterdam district of Hillegersberg, where she lives with her parents. Nowadays, she babysits at least once a week on a fixed basis for a family via babysitting service Charly Cares, in addition to her studies in Health Sciences. ,,And for the rest it depends on how busy I am and when people need me.’’
And that is a lot more often ever since schools and daycares closed their doors. Take this week, in which she helps out families a total of three days. ,,Because the schools will be closed for even longer, parents ask: it didn't work out with the babysitter we arranged, are you still available? I often hear that, that parents check every week what exactly is going on with grandparents and with their own work.’’
A business babysitter
,,The number of requests has skyrocketed, especially over these last two weeks,’’ says Xander Koenen, co-owner and founder of Charly Cares. In Rotterdam, the number of bookings made with the babysitting service has tripled since the current lockdown compared to the months of October, November, December. 93% of bookings are for the daytime.
A business babysitter is particularly popular, which entails an employer (partially) paying for an employee's babysitting service. According to him, both small and large companies are interested. ,,The kids need to be kept busy. Companies are making a babysitter available at their expense so that their employees can continue to work productively. They were really hard-pressed and had nowhere else to take their children, while work continues as usual.’’