Childcare

Finding good babysitters for an evening date night can be hard, but there's one solution that's a total no-brainer. Kids for a Cause hosts monthly date night drop-off evening childcare events run by NYU and Columbia University students to raise money for Baby's First Home, a charity that helps provide shelter for NYC homeless teen mothers. And they are Pay-What-you-Wish.

Talk about Win-Win! You get inexpensive, fun babysitting by great college sitters and get to help young mothers and their baby's at the same time.

Trying to save a few bucks by skipping out on a baby sitter doesn’t mean you have to be cooped up every Friday night, dreaming of sassy restaurants with plush furniture. Many places in New York City offer drop-off times, especially around Valentine’s Day, that allow you and your date to have some play time while the little guys are having a good (and safe ) time, too. Plus, drop-off services won’t leave your wallet as empty as that baby sitter of yours, you don't need to worry about paying for the car service home, and your kids will have so much fun they'll think it was their party night, not yours.

In honor of Cupid, skip the Netflix and try one of these happenin’ spots for a night on the town that’s fun for you and the kids. We've listed the Valentines Day event, but most of these places do a Parents' Night Out Event regularly, so check them out for now, or for later.

Private schools just had their Spring Break and public schools have theirs coming up and as we're waiting for the weather to warm up, we've got vacations on the brain.

Have you ever been stuck with a family vacation that actually seemed like more work than not being on vacation? If you are used to having childcare, a family vacation can be a shocking experience. It's not something that most people want to admit, and of course we all love spending lots of time with our kids, but hard-working parents need some real down-time too or they're going to have their own little melt-downs that no binky can fix.

Taking a babysitter on vacation with you might seem like a huge luxury, but sometimes luxuries are really necessities. But wanting to take a baby sitter on vacation with you and actually doing it are two different things, two things with lot of steps in between, like how much to pay and how to find a sitter who will travel with you, etc. The experts at Sittercity have shared some tips with us on how to make the fantasy a reality.

Last week we wrote about two terrific winter break vacation camps that are offering Mommy Poppins readers significant discounts on their normal fees. This week we have four more camps for the President's Week Winter Vacation perfect for kids as little as three years old through teenagers.

Having a grown up meal out in a restaurant isn't really a luxury. It can be a survival tactic for stressed out parents who have virtually forgotten that they share anything in common besides the DNA of their children and their inability to get The Wonder Pets theme song out of their head. But figuring out the whole babysitter thing can make going out to eat more a chore than a treat.

So when Brian Kaplan, founder of Parent Play, told me they were starting Drop and Dine it sounded like a great idea. Drop and Dine lets parents eat in peace and quiet in a nice restaurant while their children are entertained and fed just steps away in the private party room of the same restaurant.

In the series NYC Nanny 101: The finding and care of your nanny Parts 1 and 2 I've tried to lay out some basic tips on finding a caregiver in New York, the interview and salaries. But there are lots of different perspectives on this issue. And some of them will make you wet your pants. Enjoy:

Mommy Poppins reader, Robin, says she's found a few nannies to interview through other nannies, friends and craigslist (just as we suggested in part 1 of this series)...but, now what! As Robin plainly puts it, "My husband and I agree on one thing - we have no idea what we are doing."

So you've gotten some names, what next? How do you conduct a nanny interview?: What questions do you ask? How much should you offer to pay? What are you forgetting? In part two of our series on the finding and care of your nanny we will answer these and other pressing questions.

Nannies. They're all around you, and yet, somehow the perfect one seems so unattainable. How do you find a nanny in New York City? Where do you look? What do you look for? How do you know they're the right one? And what do you do once you get them? How much will you have to pay? And can you find someone to work the crazy hours you need? I don't have all the answers, but I'll give you my honest, hard-won, down-to-earth experience with this issue and you can add it to all the other junk you hear and make up your own mind.

This is going to be a several part series on childcare. Today's post is all about how to find a caregiver in NYC.

You may have noticed a new addition to the sidebar on Mommy Poppins last week. College Nannies and Tutors is running an ad on this site and offering a great deal exclusively to Mommy Poppins readers - and just in time for The Great Fall Baby Sitter Shuffle too. Even I am looking for a new baby sitter as my son goes off to elementary school for the first time and we will cut back to part time care. But I digress.

College Nannies and Tutors is holding a contest for one free "date night" coverage. That's five hours of baby sitting at no charge with one of their trained professional nannies. Free babysitting and a night out just with grown-ups - I know that's something that every one of us could use.

To enter just click on the ad and a new email window should open up. Just add your name, location and children's ages and hit send. The drawing will be held at the end of the month.

For some reason all-day schools are not considered in the same category as preschools with shorter programs. It seems the fewer hours your child is allowed to spend at a preschool, the more cachГѓВ© the school has. Perhaps it's the theory that if you're paying more for less, it must be good. Or maybe it's that the kids just don't have enough time at school for anything to happen that could make you not like it. But, most likely it's because all-day schools are often seen as daycare - which has become a dirty word in NYC parenting circles. (Newsflash: sending your child to daycare, instead of keeping them at home with and full-time nanny and paying $15K for a couple hours of preschool is considered neglect in some NYC circles.) But, of course, this is just nonsense and there are some wonderful all-day preschools that parents are really missing out on if they overlook them.

One we particularly like is The Children's International Workshop on Union Square. Located in a sunny, open loft with large windows facing North - children learn colors from the lights on the Empire State Building - the space has a lively, homey energy.