Childcare woes

My biggest challenge as a working mom is childcare.

I work for myself and am in control of my hours – that definitely helps. I don’t need full-time childcare, just “spot care” for the few hours during the day when I need to head to an off-site business meeting or need a little of bit of peace to focus on work.

Nonetheless, it’s difficult for me to trust my children in the care of others, unless it’s immediate family or close friends. I won’t leave them with just anyone. And that is my conundrum today…

Having just relocated back home to San Diego, you’d think my childcare woes would be magically solved. Not a chance. Everyone in my immediate family works, so it’s not like I can hit them up for free sitting during the day when I need it most. It’s been over a decade since I last lived here, so while I have friends here, those were developed way before I had kids and well…I don’t know them as well today as I did then.

So, faced with looming business meetings on my calendar (Hooray! That’s a good thing!), I turned to one of my favorite online resources for caregivers – Sittercity.

Within minutes of posting my job for a part-time summer sitter, I received a handful of  applicants from sitters eager to take the job. So this week, in the middle of settling into San Diego, completing client assignments and entertaining three active kids on summer break, I’m on the search for a sitter.

Oh, this is gonna be fun…