Babysitting Co-op

3 boys, 3 girls, 3 blondes, 3 brunettes.....all friends! Trust me, you don't want to see the dance I had to do to get all 6 of them to look or smile at the same time!


I think my friend Shiloh gets the credit for coming up with this idea, and it's a great one! Friends Shiloh, Amy, and I decided to do a babysitting co-op on Friday nights. This means that we all take our kids to one home where one gal and her husband babysit while the other 2 couples go out. We should all theoretically watch the kids one night a month, be able to go on two free dates, and there will be one Friday night a month where we all just stay home and don't do the co-op. Sometimes with illnesses, church programs, or traveling, we will have to skip some Friday nights, but it will just pick up right where we left off in that case. Last week was my turn and since my husband was out of town most of the evening, I watched the 6 alone. They did remarkably well given our small apartment and all the energy and excitement! What a great way to go on cheap dates without having to pay a sitter or bug my parents who are exhausted on Friday nights! It will be nice to have 2 hours to just hang out as a couple. Some things that we couples have chosen to do with our time so far: Go for a drive, go out for dessert, talk, go on a dinner date, go for a walk, stay home and paint the bathroom, etc.

We all have small children who are great friends and play together constantly at church and weekly activities and oddly enough we all have one boy and one girl. Two of them are preschoolers, 2 are 2-year olds (the twins), and 2 are 1-year olds! I guess we will wreck the perfect numbers/stats of the co-op when we have our third!