Have I mentioned how much I love our new neighborhood? Well I do! I truly believe that we live in the best neighborhood around!! Our neighborhood is composed of cute homes, tall trees and wonderful neighbors. The houses are older and were built around the 1950's. Many homeowners have renovated and updated their houses while keeping the quaint integrity of the 1950's home. The old, tall trees shade the houses and the streets. Not to mention that they turn the most beautiful colors in the fall! The people who make up the neighborhood are of a wide variety. There are a few original homeowners sprinkled in among lots of families with young children and a few families with older children. I love going for walks and seeing neighbors outside with the children playing, walking their dogs or just sitting on their porch talking to other neighbors.
Having a baby is a great way to get to know other families. It gives you something in common immediately! We met most of the neighbors on our street early in the fall (right after we moved in) at a block party. At that gathering one of our neighbors asked me, "So are you going to join the co-op?" I had no idea what she was talking about! She quickly explained it to me and I knew instantly that I would want to join!
The babysitting co-op is (in a nutshell) free babysitting (who wouldn't want to join this)!! When you join you are given 20 tickets and a set of bylaws (yes, there are rules and I know that some mom who was in a sorority in college came up with these, I know that all too well!). Mom's babysit other mom's children. When you need a sitter you can contact someone else in the group or you can e-mail the whole group asking for someone to watch your child. The tickets are used as "payment" for babysitting. If I watch another mom's child(ren) she will pay me for each hour with a tickets. There are silly rules such as if you feed the child a meal then you get an extra ticket or if the babysitting is before a certain time in the morning then it costs another ticket. In order for the group to work efficiently the group is limited to only 20 moms.
The group meets together each month. Some months there are meeting to discuss how the co-op is going and other months there are family socials. This is another great way to get to know the other members and their families.
I just joined the co-op a couple of months ago. I haven't really utilized it yet! I plan to use it for an hour or two here and there to get things done around the house, run errands or possibly get a workout in. The idea of the co-op is just genius! It allows other families the chance to bond and it gives moms some much needed help.... Not to mention this is a great way to help save money!
*By the way... I just joined the Twitter Craze! Follow me to see what we are up to during the week! @holldollsimmons
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