When I was in junior high school, I was babysitting newborns for a dollar an hour. My, how times have changed. Depending on where you live, you might be lucky to find a high school kid who'll take less than ten bucks an hour, if you can find a high school kid at all. Around here, people seem to lean toward using off-duty or former nannies, whose qualifications are stellar but who charge up the yin-yang. I had plenty of time to ponder this while I sifted through ads on Craigslist and set up interviews trying to find the right person to watch Tivo at my house all evening while my kids sleep, in exchange for more money per hour than I made as an operations manager for an internet startup. Yeah, we don't go out much.

In honor of National Babysitting Safety Day, which was Sunday and the existence of which I should probably be less surprised, Denise over at BlogHer put together a great little roundup of sites that can help you get over the hump and out of the house. If you don't mind paying as much for the chance to get out together for pizza and a movie as you would have paid for dinner at a three-star restaurant back in the old days, that is.