It’s no surprise that during the COVID-19 pandemic, parents are struggling to find quality child care. With unprecedented numbers of employees being mandated to work remotely, parents are wrestling with striking a balance between working while caring for their children. For parents with school-aged children, they are now doing triple duty serving as remote workers, full-time childcare providers, and educators.

Enter virtual care.

On platforms like Sitter.com, caregivers and tutors can now connect with families looking for “virtual babysitting” and tutoring services. While caregivers can still look through jobs and find something that matches their needs, rather than providing care in the family’s home, the provider spends a few hours online with one child or a group of children doing things like going over their schoolwork and entertaining them remotely with activities ranging from magic shows to singalongs.

While virtual babysitting is not a replacement for in-person child care, with virtual babysitting providers can help children with their homework, play games, and guide them through engaging activities, giving parents a short window of time to jump on a work call, exercise, or attend a virtual meeting.

Since many childcare providers are struggling to make ends meet, it’s not surprising that parents aren’t the only ones interested in this arrangement. By pairing free platforms like Zoom or Skype’s Video Conference Call System and payment platforms like Venmo or Paypal, providers are finding virtual babysitting a way to bridge their financial gap.

For nannies and babysitters considering offering virtual sitting or tutoring services, Sitter.com suggests a few strategies for helping families to get the most out of virtual care.

These include:

Making safety their top priority. Providers should map out a safety plan for communicating with the parents during a session if an issue comes up.
Keeping sessions short and going no longer than one to two hours. Anything more than that may not be realistic giving the limitations of virtual care.
Offering to do group sessions, keeping the number of children to less than five. Clients can invite the children of their friends to take part in virtual games, dancing, singing, trivia, magic, puppets shows, and more under your watch for a reduced per family fee.
Asking parents to attend the first virtual session to make sure the expectations are outlined and that everyone seems to connect.
Requiring parents to be close by. Parents should not leave their child unattended during these sessions as providers are not able to physically supervise the child when connected only by video.
Reviewing planned activities with the parents and asking what suits the child’s interests.

Right now, dual working families are struggling to keep up with work, childcare, and homeschooling. Having even an hour of time to themselves could provide parents with the time they need to practice self-care or catch up on work related duties.

While it’s unknown if virtual sitting will be more than a trend, right now parents and caregivers are utilizing this unique way to connect and give everyone a little of what they need. For children, this means one-on-one attention, for parents, this means a small window of time, and for nannies or sitters, this means a little extra cash when it’s needed most.

These are uncharted territories and unprecedented times. Normal days will return, but for the moment, the whole notion of childcare has been turned on its head, with millions of parents doing triple duty as remote workers, full-time caregivers, and educators. And with social distancing requirements and many childcare workers struggling to make ends meet, for many parents and caregivers, virtual sitting seems to be the right answer, for right now.

*This content has been sponsored by Sitter.com.*

Is Virtual Childcare the New Trend?