We don't hire babysitters. We trade off with our friends. That way, we can all enjoy having nights out with our SOs, but can feel safe that our kids are with someone we know and trust and we save a ton of money!

I hire a babysitter weekly but only for an hour here and a couple of hours there during the day so I can actually do things like get my nails/hair done and do some quick grocery shopping.

Otherwise we call on Uncle and Aunty for date nights. They love to come look after her and we get time to ourselves, fun for all!

We don't hire an actual sitter either. We either get our landlords (neighbors) or family.

But the first year, we rarely have anyone sit. I get engorged if I go more than a couple hours without nursing until they're about a year or so, which makes it tough to do regularly. I'll put up with it sometimes to get out, but I don't want to do it weekly. And bringing a pump on a date is a real mood killer.

After a year, we try to get out together at least once a month.

We use family to babysit rather than hiring a sitter. The high cost of a sitter for 3 kids is prohibitive to going out and spending even more money. I also feel much better because I can trust who is watching them and can actually enjoy my occasional night out.

Once every month or two we have my dad come over after the kids are in bed. They're tucked in by 7, my dad has a movie popped in by 7:10 and we're out the door by 7:15. Sometimes I'll hire a sitter to come over for 2 hours while I run errands, usually if we are getting ready for a trip or something, but my husband is just in the office working.

Never. (I have actually known people to say I throw my kid around to people or whatever and I can't believe they'd waste their breath to start such sh!t.)

--> I pay for my daughter to go to a fantastic school/daycare... my bestfriend (who I work with and happens to be married to my exhusband)'s son go there too. Our kids are four months apart and best friends also.

--> And the grandparents (my husband's parents/my mother) get my daughter one night on the weekends.

--> And my best friend takes my daughter to the park with their son, or I watch the kids for an hour or so.

But that is it. I have never hired anyone to babysit in my home or left my daughter with anyone irresponsible. I had this all planned before I had my daughter. I think it's important to bring children into the world with a lot of family support and a semi-set-agenda for parenting.

before we moved we would get a sitter every few months. they were teens. i got money doing it when i was a teen, so i try to provide the same opportunity. now, we haven't been alone by ourselves for a date in over six months...

We have never "hired" a sitter either. We have so much family chomping at the bit to watch our daughter that we haven't had the need to hire anyone just yet. We rarely go out, which might be part of the reason too. Actually, for my birthday my brother and sister-in-law gave me concert tickets for my husband and I and then they offered to watch our daughter while we went out. I'm pretty certain that was as much a gift for them as it was for me .

I had a daycare lady with my first son but I don't think I have ever hired a babysitter like I was when I was a teen. Which kind of seems odd now looking back that someone would have trusted me as a 15 year old with their three kids. Not that I did anything wrong, it just seems strange that I would be so opposed to it as I was a teenage babysitter myself.

Never had a sitter. I might go out about once every few months and my mom watches my 3 kids.

Never. Once or twice a year one of my SILs will watch the kids so we can do some Xmas shopping or go out for our anniversary.

Except for once, we have only left our son with family. We had concert tickets and none of our family could watch him so we hired a teen from our neighborhood to watch him. I was super-nervous and almost didn't do it, but I kept remembering how much I used to baby-sit when I was her age. Everything went fine- she got my son to sleep, but it was SOOOOOOO expensive (and my son was sleeping 75% of the time)!

i don't have kids yet, but when i was younger i used to babysit and i would have a standing 'appointment' with a few families - so i knew that i had a gig every friday and every saturday. i think that it's nice for parents to get a date night every week and i know that some of the couples i would sit for would have couple nights out with friends - which i think is fine.

We have never hired a sitter, but also have no family nearby. So basically, we don't go out unless family is visiting. Or baby goes everywhere with me/us, which is tough. At some point, we will be forced to hire a sitter because it will be necessary to attend an event or something. I have no idea who that will be.

We use family for sitters as opposed to paying someone, but we don't do that very often either. We just usually stay in at night and watch movies, drink wine and have a nice dinner once the kids are in bed.

My parents or my sisters are my babysitters. I never have to worry about her when we get away.

We would honestly go nuts if we need weekly outings. It wouldn't bring us closer, it'd cause stress.

Luckily we both feel that way, so things work fine the way they are.

I'd also have no problem hiring many teenage girls or boys I know. Our landlord's son has watched the boys often, he's just not a hired sitter. And he's wonderful with them.

I cannot type today. That's if we DID weekly outings, we'd go nuts. If we needed weekly outings, we'd do them. But we're quite the opposite.