Chime on Childcare

Power Moms: Including Genevieve Theirs and Jennifer Owens, Editor of Working Mother Magazine

I was slowly perusing the aisles of Target the other day when I witnessed a familiar site. A mom, struggling to fill her cart with necessary and maybe even nutritious items while also wrangling three small kids who had ideas of their own about what should be included in said cart. I was exhausted just watching.

We’ve recently gotten to a place in our family life where I can leave my kids for a few hours (of work or errands) relatively secure they will take good enough care of themselves to remain alive and well while I am gone. However, I remember the days of juggling work and childcare well enough that I am overwhelmed just thinking about it.

When I first moved to New Jersey and didn’t know a soul, I was overwhelmed at finding childcare for the times I had to go on sales calls or events for work. I was “lucky” enough to do most of my work at home, during naps or a Disney Junior Marathon, (Thanks for all the babysitting hours, Mickey) but there were times where I needed outside help. In Maryland, I went off referrals. Here in Jersey I often relied on Sittercity to find quality, safe providers for me.

Last week I had the pleasure of an incredible group of working women for lunch. Our politically vocal, hilariously funny group included Genevieve Thiers, the founder of Sittercity. It was the day after the third debate, so as you might imagine, we had plenty to discuss about women’s rights, women in leadership and being a working parent.

Genevieve is a force of nature, who not only created this incredible site, but did so with the bigger goals than just reliable childcare. Genevieve is all about political change and women’s rights. She recognizes that 71% of us work outside our homes and yet nearly 80% of us are still also responsible for all of the childcare needs. She recognizes the hustle of modern day parenting and she wanted to build Sittercity and now Chime to be an important member of each of our home teams.

At lunch we were introduced to Chime, a new service from Sittercity that provides the same high quality, experienced and carefully curated child care professionals in an on-demand way. In major cities (including New York, DC, Chicago and Hoboken/Jersey City) Chime provides instant booking and liquidity.  Chime is for all of us who need care for our kids in the ways that don’t fit with an average day care or nanny setting. You just type in your location, choose from one of the carefully vetted providers and pay an agreed upon hourly fee through a credit card. Chime handles the rest.  Chime is our quick, to the rescue childcare for those times we need it most. Check out Hellochime.com for more details. 

ReinventionGirl readers have a special offer of $50 from Chime to try their service. Just click here to sign up and get yourself a kid-free conference call or even a Target run!

This post is sponsored. All opinions are my own.