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$450 for Babysitting During Riot Fest? Mom Launches Co-Op as a Better Way

By Alisa Hauser | October 1, 2014 3:13pm
 Valerie Bhatt is the organizer of a new babysitting co-op.
Babysitting Co-Op in Wicker Park
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WICKER PARK — Riot Fest not only caused a lot of damage in Humboldt Park, it also made a dent in the Bhatt family's pocketbook: Valerie Bhatt and her husband, Tapan, an emergency room physician for a Cook County hospital, ended up paying $450 to a baby sitter while they enjoyed the outdoor music fest.

That got the 36-year-old mother to think about cheaper ways to find child care for her 7-month-old baby, Isabella.

Her idea: a grassroots, free baby-sitting co-op in which parents would watch other kids in exchange for someone watching theirs.

"The idea is for us all to save money but get to know each other as a community with some sort of a get-together, so as not to have strangers baby-sit your child," said Valerie Bhatt, a Wicker Park resident.

Alisa Hauser says it's like a fantasy football league, for babies:

Bhatt, a former Chicago Public Schools elementary school teacher who is taking time off to raise Isabella, said she has been distributing fliers in area cafes and has gotten some feedback from interested parents.

Bhatt said the mission of the group is to "provide quality child care at no cost while building a community of friends."

Under her plan, the co-op would give parents points for each time they watch someone else's children.  They could then spend those points when they needed a sitter for their own kids.

The goal is to create a pool of 35 local families, who would each start with 10 hours of baby-sitting and 40 tickets, or points, with each laminated ticket representing 15 minutes, or one-fourth of an hour.

The co-op members would then have a collective pool of some 350 hours of baby-sitting that can be swapped among themselves.

A parent would be required to either accept or offer baby-sitting services once each month at minimum to stay in the group.

Bhatt would create an Excel spreadsheet that would show how many hours or points each caregiver has accrued, so parents can see who needs to pick up some sitting hours and who needs a break from kids. Everyone would be required to record their points earned and spent online within 24 hours for up-to-date record keeping.

Co-op participants would be required to pay for their own background check and attend at least one out of every three monthly get-togethers to meet the other families.

To make things fun for the kids, too, there will be a reward system with stickers. Each child could receive up to five stickers per baby-sitting session from their baby sitter, with five stickers awarded for making positive choices and exhibiting good behavior. One sticker would be given for making very little effort to make positive choices.

Once a child accrued 15 stickers, she would receive a prize, such as a book or an activity.

So far Bhatt has heard from more than a dozen families interested in learning more about joining the group.

Bhatt said she is hoping that the families in the co-op can come from the Wicker Park area, though she is not yet establishing geographic boundaries.

Bhatt said the system is in part modeled after a similar baby-sitting co-op on the North Side.

The effort is allowing her to use skills she developed as an elementary school teacher, she said, adding that it's a "way to use my brain again."

Bhatt said the co-op will have two informational meetings in Wicker Park on the playground, scheduled for 11 a.m. on Nov. 1 and 2. The park is located at 1425 N. Damen Ave.

For more information, visit the Wicker Park Babysitting Co-op's Google group.

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