Adventures in Babysitting: Our Experience with Nounou Neighbors

We lived in Houston for the first 21 months of Arden’s life, and during that time we got a babysitter….twice. And would you believe she never even met Arden? Yep, I only made plans for after bedtime. I’m sure it seemed crazy to that sweet high school babysitter, but leaving our entire world with a practical stranger just wasn’t an easy thing for me.

Fast forward to today. We are so lucky to be in Kansas City with my parents who are always willing and eager to watch our kiddos. Just the other day my dad met me at Target and took the kids to lunch so I wouldn’t have to tote them along to my doctor’s appointment. Now that’s service! 😉 It really is such a blessing to have them close by and I love that my kids are making memories with them when we’re away. That being said, I also want to make sure we’re not taking advantage of their help. My parents have a great group of friends and they always seem to have something going on–so of course I want them to enjoy that and not feel constantly tied to their commitments with us. Plus sometimes I worry that TOO much time with these crazy kids might leave something to be desired–ha!

Enter Nounou Neighbors–a local website where families can find and connect with sitters in their area for babysitting, pet sitting and house sitting. When the owner, Molly, introduced me to the company and their concept, my first thought was: GENIUS! And my second was: date night! They also focus on after-school, occasional daytime, and summer nannies.

Now here’s the thing I think is so cool. Although it’s a connection website, the owner meets with and trains/coaches each sitter individually. So not only can you read the babysitter’s bio and meet with her ahead of time, you can feel secure knowing she’s been trained by Molly herself. And unlike other sitter websites, it’s always free for the babysitters to sign up, post their bio, and apply for jobs. Sitters are also paid directly by the family with no middleman involved.

Chris and I decided to take advantage of our Nounou Neighbors membership for a pre-baby date night. Because let’s be honest, after this baby is born it’ll probably be a couple of months before I put on makeup or get out of my yoga pants 😉 Some friends of ours were having a progressive dinner and we knew it would be the perfect time to go kid-free! So here’s how it worked. After registering, I posted a job on Nounou Neighbors website, which included the time, date, and other details we’d be looking for. The next day I heard from a local college student, who was as sweet as can be and sounded excited to hang out with the kids for a night. Score!

I had planned to meet her sometime before our progressive dinner just to make sure everything felt right, but instead I did some facebook stalking (I mean, who wouldn’t?!? ha!) and found out that my good friend Sarah had been her high school math teacher. Between Sarah’s approval and knowing that she’d been trained by Molly, we felt totally comfortable trusting her with our little people for the evening.

When she showed up that evening I was SO impressed. Not only was she professional and easy to talk to, but the kids instantly loved her and were dragging her out in the backyard to play before we could even say goodbye. So we hit the town (aka our neighborhood streets) and had a blast with our friends, knowing that Arden and Nash were safe at home and having a great time. I got this sweet picture from the babysitter at bedtime and it just made me so happy!

When we got home, the kids were fast asleep and the house was definitely cleaner than when we left! Did I mention that I love this girl?!? 😉

Oh and here’s a little look at our night.
So. Much. Fun.

Overall, we had an awesome experience with Nounou Neighbors (and Kerrigan!) and I’m so excited to have this resource available the next time we need a babysitter. Because honestly, if you don’t have a built-in sitter, the whole process can be so stressful!! People are protective over the really “good ones” and I’ve always found it intimidating to go out on my own and search for a sitter. This eliminates all of the stress and worry and just lets you focus on the date!

So here’s the scoop for all of my KC friends! The cost for families is only $9.99 a month, or $99.99 for a year without any joining fees. However, right now they’re offering a free one month trial for families with promo code FEBFREEMONTH. (No extra fees or percentages–so that’s that!) They already have 70+ featured sitters signed up with pictures and bios in the Johnson County area, most of whom are high school and college girls!

Let me know if you have any questions or want to hear more about our experience. You know I love to share things that I love–and this is definitely one of those!

A special thanks Molly & Nounou Neighbors for connecting with our sweet babysitter and treating us to a super fun night!