What is a child care cooperative?
A child care cooperative, sometimes called a child care club or cooperative, is simply a group of families in a community who decide to share the task of caring for children by exchanging time with each other rather than by charging money. That way, cooperative members can access occasional childcare services without having to worry about the high cost or risk of using a paid babysitter.
Benefits
There are many benefits to this approach to child care. For starters, it’s easier and less expensive than regular child care. Also, instead of relying on one or two caregivers who may or may not be available, you have access to perhaps as many as 10 or 20 families, which can make it much easier to find someone in a hurry.
For those without immediate family, a co-op can be an invaluable way to get away for a few hours without the kids to spend with your partner or on a “date night” without the added cost of childcare.
Finally, with the skyrocketing cost of daycare, some people are using childcare cooperatives to provide regular day care for one or two days a week. Taking a child to daycare just one day a week or for occasional days can be very difficult, but sharing the task among multiple families can make it much easier.
drawbacks
There are very few drawbacks to child care cooperatives and perhaps the only one is the task of managing the process. For example, the role of the secretary can be quite demanding. However, there are some new ways to fix this problem; see below for more information.
Approaches
There are two basic approaches to running a cooperative. The first uses paper-based “nanny money.” Each unit is equivalent to a fixed unit of time. Families then contact each other directly to arrange and pay for the seat.
The second guy trades points, let’s say 4 points for every hour of sitting. A secretary reserves seats and keeps track of point transactions. Both systems can work well, but most groups opt for the points approach.
Cooperatives often elect a rotating secretary. If a member requires childcare, the secretary is called requesting a babysitter for a certain date and time. The secretary calls the members and locates a sitter as close to the member’s home as possible, trying to find a sitter who owes points. The secretary then calls the member and sets up the seating arrangement.
Once the care has been provided, both the member and the caregiver agree on the number of points and these are communicated to the secretary who registers them. Points are earned for being a caregiver and providing care. Points are spent using a babysitter to care for her children.
Starting your cooperative
There are two main success factors when starting a new cooperative
- When starting your co-op, you want to make sure you have a clear set of rules so everyone knows how the process will work. Rules to consider include:
- How small/big the coop can get: A minimum of five and a maximum of 25 are generally considered best.
- How will the new members introduce themselves?
- Starting points for each family.
- How many hours is each point worth?
- Minimum points below which a family cannot request a seat.
- How will the reservation process work?
You will also probably want to have medical release forms available so that families can formally authorize the sitting family for emergency medical treatment if necessary.
- Make sure you have regular meetings (perhaps quarterly or semi-annual) so everyone can introduce themselves and get to know each other. They are usually held at the home of one of the members or at a park so that the children can come.
find members
When looking for members for your co-op, it’s best to find other families who have similar parenting practices and life values to yours. There are many places to look, including your local playgroup, school/preschool, childcare center, parent-citizen clubs, church, neighbors, and child’s sports or activity clubs.
final thoughts
One last thing to consider when setting up your coop is the idea of using it for more trading than just babysitting. Maybe you can also use it for carpooling for children’s activities or taking care of your pets when you leave. Once you’ve got the people and the process together, there are many other uses to save time and money for your cooperative.