Baby Sitting is one of those necessary evils. It has its pros and cons though. Yes, it does take the children out of the room, which can be a blessing when a meeting gets heated up or when delicate subjects are being discussed. It also tires the kids out before parents take them home, which is a GREAT thing if you ask me. When I was prez, my husband and teenaged son took the children to the gym and played basketball with those who wanted to play. There was also a table with coloring books and crayons for those who didn't want to play basketball. Older students were encouraged to bring homework or reading material. We also provided a small snack, usually fruit roll ups and boxed juice (easy to clean up after...lol).
The other side of the coin is that you are providing a service that must take the welfare and safety of children into mind. We didn't carry insurance only because it didn't cross my mind that it was something we should have had. It was also the first year that we had sitting available on a large scale basis. It crossed my mind the following year, when I was not prez, only because the new board left one 12 year old girl alone and in charge. Suddenly it was a liability to our group. That has changed, and now one adult volunteer stays in the gym with the kids, helped out by tweens and teens when available. I do not leave my children there because of the insurance issue, as well as the fact that I am not comfortable with how it is staffed. If you choose not to carry insurance (or even if you do carry insurance), be sure to staff with adults and high school students, not tweens and early teens. High school students in our area have to have X-amount of community hours before they graduate and that makes the task more like a job for them. I didn't use the community hours way, instead choosing to pay $10 to assure they would show up and do a good job. The more precaution you take, the better.
The biggest up-side is that attendance definately went up during my year as pres. The biggest down-side is waiting for the first accident, whether you have insurance or not. I was truely thankful that no accidents occurred during my year as pres, considering that I initiated the program. I am convinced that providing safe, responsible adult childcare is the right thing to do to encourage better attendance and provide a place for children to play while business is conducted.
One way that I've heard of other groups doing the babysitting thing is to charge one dollar per child and pay a sitter. I think you could do this with an actual licensed day care provider. They carry their own insurance.
At our PTO meetings, We have a school aide watch the children. She takes them into a different classroom and does activities with them.(art supplies handy, holiday sheets to color,gets a tv and vcr from the school to watch children movies). When the weather is good and if she doesn't have alot of children, She will take them out to the play ground.
We have never had babysitting available at our meetings. Occasionally there is a few kids that come and read in the back, okay sometimes they can get noisey. One time we had to have our meeting in the Cafeteria and the echos made the kids sound even noisier. One parent offered to take them in the gym to run around a little bit. There was a little girl in there that had limited ability in her arms and legs, no one told us that and sure enough she fell down. She was okay and the mother checked on her and then returned to the meeting and continued to leave her handicapped child in the gym.
We keep getting requests and ideas for offering babysitting at meetings. Have a couple teenagers and at least one adult available to babysit. Have the parents sign a waiver. More parents will be available to come then. So here's my question. Has anyone tried this and what are the pros and cons? What sort of liability (even with waivers) are we opening ourselves up to? How do we politely state that we are not equipped or trained to handle special needs children? I hate to go there, but we just don't have the skills.
We really don't seem to have attendance problems, it's sort of a unwritten rule that if the kids can sit quietly they can come. Other groups offer babysitting. They usually plan an activity and have teachers or trained staff babysit and of course it's an event hosted once a year, not once a month like us.
During regular school hours, it's the district policy that younger sibling can not come with parent volunteers. (you can't always host a room party and keep your 2 yr old from knocking over the fish bowl).
