As the Coronavirus-led lockdown has forced families to adopt the pandemic lifestyle, parents are having quite a hard time dealing with their little ones at home 24×7. We have seen companies like Spotify and Apple come up with new ways to keep the kids engaged, giving the parents a bit of time of their own. However, according to recent reports, parents are now hiring babysitters to keep their offsprings engaged virtually and it seems business is booming for the initial virtual babysitting companies.
Since the global lockdown has shut down schools and education institutions, parents have been trying to home-school their kids. However, juggling between working from home, house chores, taking care of the kids and helping them to keep learning, most parents cannot cope with the situation. So, now they are hiring nannies to talk, play and keep kids engaged through video-conferencing platforms like FaceTime and Zoom. This is giving parents some time of their own to make work calls, mow the garden or just take a breather from the hectic indoor-life.
After the popularity of this newly discovered business-model, the virtual babysitting industry saw a whopping 700% rise in demand from the middle of March to mid-April. Following some of the initial virtual babysitting companies like Care.com, Babysitting Company and Minutes 4 Moms, many other babysitter-providers have started to train their workforce in virtual engagement with kids.
Now, according to the report, these virtual babysitters can charge up to $36 (~Rs 2720) for a 45-minute session with the kids, So that amounts to almost $48 (~Rs 3630) an hour, which is quite steep.
