Child Care Checklist: Fill & Download for Free

A2ATo the best of my knowledge, there is no age specified by law for when children may be left alone.The Department of Education provides a checklist at Child Development (CA Dept of Education).National Network for Child Care guidelines are available at http://www.sierrasaccoalition.org/pdfs/home_alone.pdf.

Wow, "all" is a big word. As I just found out, childcare is a massive and quickly growing market. There is a large spectrum from established startups with significant shares of the market alongside small, regional apps attempting to get footholds with specific niches. Below is a curated, extensive (50+) list with brief self-descriptions pulled from AngelList, CrunchBase, and other places -- far, far from exhaustive still, but an earnest attempt to answer this question in full.First, the big three. These are the names that repeatedly come up in the babysitting on demand tech space:UrbanSitter - A San Francisco-based service and app that allows parents to search for, book, pay, review, and recommend babysitters and nannies via connecting with Facebook for reviews from trusted local organizations and neighbors. UrbanSitter allows both parents and babysitters to create user accounts for free. Services start with scheduled interviews and then a pay-as-you-go fee or by subscribing to a monthly or annual membership. Of the top three, UrbanSitter has the cheapest subscription fee and plenty of nice features like finding sitters your friends are using. Babysitters can find and accept jobs for free or subscribe to a monthly or annual membership to receive a background check as well as other features. Notably, UrbanSitter has been prominently featured in publications including Wired, The Wall Street Journal, CNN, and Mashable, and the company raised ~$22.75M in funding and has 20+ employees.Sittercity (Chime) - Started in Chicago in 2001, Sittercity is an established national website connecting families, individuals and corporate employees with local in-home care which include babysitters, nanny, pet sitters, and tutors. Notably, the platform currently has over one million registered caregivers and lots of established tools like rates recommendations for your area, checklists, background checks, and other resources. Sittercity raised $43.6M in 4 rounds of funding to date with 60+ employees. In mid 2015, Sittercity launched its app Chime, so parents can schedule a sitter in advance or find one last minute and re-book favorites. Of the three, it seems best for finding sitters on the go with discounts and comes with free membership for military.Care.com - As a publicly traded corporation since early 2014, this platform doesn't quite qualify as a startup technically but still operates roughly at the same scale as middle-sized tech startups. Launched in 2007 outside Boston, Care was the fastest growing player of these three. It is a platform for child care, senior care, special needs care, tutoring, pet care, housekeeping, and other care-taking services for 9.7M users internationally, $111M in funding, $57M in annual revenue, and 540+ employees. Users can search, post jobs and look at caregiver profiles for free. Then they can pay a monthly, quarterly or yearly subscription fee to contact caregivers and get background checks. The site also helps people find job opportunities in their area by posting a free profile and applying to openings, and expanded into enterprise offerings for companies like Google and Facebook.UrbanSitter, Sittercity, and Care take the lions' share of the market but the global market is massive yet locally fragmented. Many rising upstarts are quickly gaining traction and finding niches in novel ways of establishing trust, providing meaningful services, or cater to very specific regional markets. A small portion of these are solid startups with a growing track record. Another portion are just sincere ideas in app form, still very much finding their way and looking for funding or better product-market-fit. Some may even be deprecated startups, graduated into small local businesses or abandoned pages. But here's the complete list of relevant startups found online.Helpr - "delivers babysitters to your door, on demand"SeekingSitters - "easy, safe babysitting solutions"mom trusted - "social marketplace for early education and care, connects childcare and preschool providers to the 25M moms who use their services"CareGuide - "portfolio of focused marketplaces for everyday care services including Sitter.com, Housekeeper.com, PetSitter.com, ElderCare.com, and HouseSitter.com"myBestHelper - "just-in-time flexible mobile global solution to manage child, elder and illness care"CareZone - "simplifies the lives of those caring for children, partners and aging parents; provides a simple and entirely private environment where family and helpers can stay organized and coordinated"Sitter - "Uber meets LinkedIn for babysitters; simplifies the process of scheduling and paying your own sitters, saving you the hassles of overlapping texts, phone calls, and sitters flaking out"CareBooker - "platform for finding, booking, and paying for all types of family care services, such as babysitting, pet care, tutoring & lessons"SittingAround - "sitters post availability and book jobs online -- managing their babysitting work like a business"ZumiCare - "allows parents to find, screen, and manage the scheduling of university-affiliated babysitters"SafetySitters - "concierge, customized premium in-home care, 24 hours every day, to select families by forging a trusted relationship using prescreened caregivers"Sittr - "parents can search, book and pay for their sitters through web, iOS, and Android"Trusted - "childcare services on-demand"SEP Solutions - "helps parents easily care for their newborn without worrying about safety or well-being, and enabling them to share via smart tools"CARE-ON - "trusted marketplace for caring services where you can find, list and book with the best and closest caregivers in your area"QloudSitter - "real-times collaborative parenting with public and private caregivers"Kamunity - "mobile application that connects parents and pet owners to local sitters who have gone through a multi-step vetting process"Raised in the neighborhood - "a social network for parents to help babysitting/playdates swaps"Babysitting.today - "app for parents which helps them find a babysitter for their children quickly and effectively"Serving Mothers - "social media website for mothers to find quality service providers in their area for childcare and other services"PayMySitter - "simple way for families to book and pay trusted sitters"Carerfy - " on demand carer service which connects families with trusted care companions for people with disabilities, the elderly and childcare needs"CollegeCare/CityCare - "iOS app that allows parents to book childcare services from a local university, mostly made up of highly qualified nursing students"MommyMaiDD Services - "match-making services for parenting assistants, babysitters, nannies, domestic assistants, and disability caregivers who match the families needs"Now Nanny - "on-demand child care service that provides family with fully-vetted and experience sitters"Poppins - "mobile app for reliable, affordable, on-demand child care"Usitterz - "mobile app for childcare services"Invitekids - "share childcare with other parents"ChipperSitter - "On demand babysitting, review video profiles and click to book"Understudy Sitters - "concierge for babysitting"Neoporter - "access to a group of highly qualified, vetted and local undergraduate sitters"Personal Assistant Plus - "affordable home and concierge services"Additional ones focused more on other sides of childcare like childcare centers or ride-sharing. Many of these have variations in other local markets, so this is more of a sample:CareLuLu - "online marketplace allows parents to quickly find a daycare or preschool that fits their family's needs"PreUni - "sharing economy for pre-school child care from ages 0-4, creating classrooms for 6 month increments"CubbySpot - "help parents find the best daycare for their child and we enable daycares to fill available spots easily"Totkare - "simple solution to help parents find childcare centers and preschools for their kids"Cutie Patootie's Playcare - "flexible drop-in childcare for families during and beyond typical working hours"Shuddle - "safe rides for kids, easily scheduled and tracked rides with carefully vetted drivers"HopSkipDrive - "ride-sharing app for kids, service that allows parents to book rides through an app and track their children's trips in real-time"And some more regional specific ones:Le Cicogne - "leading European company to match demand and supply for baby-sitters"Nannuka - "international online platform that connects parents to numerous nannies, babysitters, tutors and housekeepers across Europe"BookMyBai - "aggregator of Indian maid bureaus to hire domestic help like maids, nanny, senior citizen care takers and cooks"Canadian Nanny - "Canada’s largest resource and online service for families to find a nanny."Hlídačky.cz - "online service where parents book babysitters, supported by social networks and user reviews; based in Czech Republic"kinderfee.de - "Germany's leading trusted market place for child care services"SA3ED.ME - "lets households hire on demand personal assistants with focus on university students and specializing in child care, elderly care, and tutoring; based in Jordan, West Bank, Saudi Arabia, and Egypt"VOSAVOS - "Bogotá based tech-startup focused on making it easier for people to recruit verified and recommended house cleaners, child care and adult care professionals"ADVENIO - "high-quality corporate childcare centers in Mexico and Latin America"AtHome - "connects families and individuals with home solutions for cleaning and housework, child care and pet care in Chile, Argentina and Uruguay"Find A Babysitter - " largest player in the Australian market for babysitters"Kidoro Health - "healthcare platform that simplifies the journey of pregnancy to child care for a mother by connecting them to healthcare providers currently operational in India"Hello Givers - "Caregivers marketplace based in Spain"BrightStar Care of Arlington - "high quality in-home care focused in northern Virginia, USA"Rocket City Sitters - "highly-qualified sitters in the North Alabama, USA area"Nannies on Demand - "high quality babysitters to families throughout New Zealand"Finally, honorable mentions should include platforms like craigslist and Nextdoor which, although not directly servicing childcare, are hubs for finding on demand childcare.This is a huge list so far and, to be honest, I may have only covered 10% or less of the amount of technical apps and services (particularly of the childcare center or local services variety). I could go on, digging up more obscure startups in this space but I hope I've captured how very fragmented the industry is. The challenge is to find and establish babysitters you can trust as well as addressing other needs that give parents a reason to move away from the established giants. Market specific services are especially competitive, but service specific ones like Shuddle tackle economies at scale far better. So hopefully, I covered most of the major startups in this space and captured the gist of what they're trying to do with some justice. Thanks for reading!

Parenting is a tough task in today’s face paced life. If you are a working woman then it’s more difficult. But with the advancement of technology all the needs are now at our fingertips in the form of mobile apps.Take a look at these top 3 useful apps helpful in child care:1. Mom MapsMom Maps helps you find things to do with your children while you’re away from home. Including playgrounds, restaurants, museums, and indoor play areas2. Baby Pack & Go Packing ListBaby Pack & Go Packing List is an extensive packing and travel checklist for any occasion.3. IHomeopathyChildren will be children, and that can mean unexpected bug bites, bumps, and bruises, even for the most careful parents. iHomeopathy guides you in first-aid emergencies, ailments, and common illnesses.For useful tips and articles on child care, click here