BCS Sitters provides trustworthy childcare options to both local families and those in town for game day.
Created in 2012 as a service specifically for families in the Bryan-College Station area, BCS Sitters provides services ranging from babysitting, errand-running and pet sitting. Customers create memberships that allow them to have access to thoroughly inspected potential sitters and utilize a job board system to connect local families to local sitters.
Lindsay Strain, Class of 2009, gained ownership of the business in July of 2016, but has lived in the area since she became a freshman at Texas A&M twelve years ago. She explains that the website was initially created by another mother in the area who found it difficult to acquire babysitters for her own children. Also a mother, Strain is in the process of rebranding her website with new features, to better connect to families.
“I wasn’t really sure what my next career step was going to be, but I knew that I really needed something that would allow me to be more involved with my own kids. Kids have always been my passion,” Strain said. “So this came up for sale and it looked like the perfect opportunity, because it gave me the ability to be the kind of mom I want to be, and still allows me to connect with children and families in the community.”
All sitters through the service are contracted and determine their own availability. Strain said that her sitters have passions for serving others, but don’t have the schedule required for a full time job. Each sitter is interviewed by Strain, are CPR certified and must provide references.
“If parents are paying to have access to these babysitters, then I need to be offering them primo, best of the best sitters,” Strain said. “I think having that outlet of someone to call directly, and someone that’s looking over the site making sure that things are being taken care of makes moms feel more comfortable. If there is an issue, they have somebody they can go to.”
Skylar Brown has been a resident in B-CS for fifteen years, but said she has only been using the site since January. When her past childcare service was ending, she needed a full time nanny. Brown looked at other options online, but did not like the automated responses or the feeling of a large corporation.
“Whenever I reached out to Lindsay and told her my needs, it was less than twenty-four hours and she was sending stuff out to people. That was even before I had a membership,” Brown said. “She wasn’t super worried about getting a new member, but about just helping me get somebody to take care of my kids. It was very personal.”
Lindsay Greening, owner of Piranha Fitness Studio, has a partnership with BCS Sitters that provides onsite babysitting services for her gym members. She and Strain worked together directly to develop their system.
“It’s just getting off the ground, so we have a small handful of members who use it, but it’s very personable,” Greening said. “The moms get to know the babysitters, and typically the same girl will watch their kids every day of the week. They really feel comfortable leaving their kids there and they give us great feedback.”
Strain said the well-being of the B-CS community holds significance for her.
“This is my home too,” Strain sad. “So it’s important to me to take care of the families in this community, because it’s my community as well.”