What is backup care and how can I use it?
A primer for your childcare options
As a parent, you’ve worked hard to figure out a childcare solution that’s best for your family. Maybe you have your kids in daycare, with a full-time nanny, or your childcare solution is a mastermind puzzle of grandparents, part-time babysitters, and after-school activities.
Whatever the case, you also know how stressful it can be when that childcare option suddenly isn’t available. Enter: backup care. In this article, we explain what backup care is, and how you can use it to complete your solution once and for all.
What is backup care?
Think of backup care as your safety net in childcare. It fills in the gaps when your regular solution isn’t available.
Examples of backup care:
When your kid is home from school
When your regular nanny is on vacation
When school or preschool is closed
When you have an unexpected, last-minute emergency
For a date night
Types of backup care can also differ. You may have center-based childcare with onsite drop-in, which is basically a backup daycare center. Another common option is a childcare provider coming directly to your home and working with your child there. The size of your employer often that dictates what kind of backup childcare solutions they offer.
Backup care as an employment benefit
As more and more companies acknowledge the importance of stable childcare for parents, it is becoming more common that they provide backup childcare as an employment benefit. This may mean you get reimbursed when you hire a backup babysitter, or your company may have a system in place where you simply request backup care, which triggers an automatic connection with an available childcare provider.
We believe it’s in every company’s best interest to offer corporate childcare benefits to help their employees with childcare. About 83% of millennial parents (the largest group of people currently having children) said they would leave their current workplace for one with more family-friendly benefits, and providing childcare assistance can reduce employee absence by 30%.
If you recognize yourself in these numbers, you are clearly not alone. If you’ve ever stressed about an important day at work when your childcare fell through, perhaps this can validate your feelings on how important reliable childcare solutions are. (And if your employer doesn’t currently offer a backup childcare benefit, perhaps now is the time to bring that to their attention?)
Who offers corporate backup care for companies?
For larger corporations who have realized the importance of easy and accessible backup childcare in maintaining smooth operations, setting up a corporate backup care system has become the easiest solution. Companies like Care.com, LifeCare (now through Care.com), and Bright Horizons have created easy options for an automated process.
Using these corporate backup care programs, pre-screened childcare providers are able to fill in immediately for last-minute needs or in pre-scheduled shifts. These candidates all:
Have childcare experience
Have cleared background checks according to the industry’s best practices
Are versed in the backup care company’s rules and routines
Get paid via payroll by the backup care company
Smart Sitting has been proud to partner with Bright Horizons Backup care program for several years. We help families around the country manage their childcare needs on both a last-minute and longer term basis, with experienced nannies and babysitters paid for by the parent’s employer.
We also partner directly with employers to curate corporate childcare benefits that suits their company’s needs. This often includes backup care but can also include long-term nannies and other forms of ongoing childcare.
Direct temporary childcare
If your company doesn’t provide backup care as part of your benefits, you may still want to have a backup system in place for temporary childcare.
At Smart Sitting, we offer temporary babysitting services directly to parents in New York and Brooklyn via our Always On program. With Always On, you get access to last-minute or planned short-term childcare coverage through a direct connection to our coordinating team. By learning about your needs and your family, we can connect you to experienced, engaging sitters who are ready to jump right in and give you peace of mind.
Need to solve your childcare puzzle with a personalized solution?
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