New app helps connect Toronto parents with babysitters

Toronto, A new Toronto-based app aims to make it easier to for parents to find quality babysitters in their neighbourhood.
The app, called DateNight, acts somewhat like a directory, connecting parents with pre-screened babysitters in their area.
In an interview with CP24’s Rena Heer, DateNight developer Elize Shirdel admitted that people have expressed some trepidation about finding a babysitter through a smartphone application.
“I think there is just some misunderstanding in the process. Nobody wants to just pick somebody randomly to come look after their kids… what we are doing is we are helping parents to streamline that (selection) process,” Shirdel told CP24 Saturday.
“No babysitting happens until you’ve found some babysitters who are compatible with you and you’ve invited them to your house for a half an hour interview.”
Shirdel said that parents are also asked to check the babysitter’s references and follow up on their credentials.
If the babysitter is a good match, Shirdel said parents can then book the babysitter through the application.
The idea for the app came, Shirdel said, when she and her husband had difficulty booking a babysitter for their own monthly date night.
“I thought it was because we were doing a bad job of scheduling but actually I think it is just because we didn’t have a good babysitter. It is hard to ask grandparents all the time and not everybody has grandparents that live close by,” she said.
“There are great experienced babysitters who live really close to you and would love to babysit for you.”
So far, the app has a roster of about 50 babysitters who are located in Toronto and other parts of the GTA. Shirdel said in the past few days, several more people have asked to be screened so they can offer their services on the app.
“We are getting great feedback,” Shirdel said.
“Parents who have gone through the process, the feedback is, ‘These are great people, these are great babysitters that are coming to our house.’”