In early 2023, during my first year of the Early Childhood Education program, I took a single weekly babysitting engagement with one Nashville family. By 2025 I was fully booked on weekday evenings with four repeat families — without ever advertising.
How it grew
Every new family came from a parent referral. What parents recommended, as they told me later, wasn't availability — it was that evenings with me were structured and legible:
- Activities planned ahead. I arrived with an age-appropriate plan — a craft, a game, a book sequence — instead of defaulting to screens.
- Written end-of-day notes. A short note each evening: what we did, what they ate, anything worth flagging. Two minutes of writing that parents consistently named as the reason they trusted me.
- Same routines as school. I used the transition and behavior-guidance techniques from my coursework, so bedtime wasn't a nightly negotiation.
The relationship that anchored it
The Hartman family, my first engagement, kept a weekly slot from January 2023 onward and wrote the reference letter I still share. Their referral brought the second family; the second brought the third and fourth.
What it taught me
I assumed parents mostly bought availability and a fair rate. I was wrong — what they were buying was predictability and communication. The families who referred me all mentioned the notes, not the schedule. Working across four households also taught me to adapt one set of routines to very different children (ages 3 to 10) and very different parenting styles — the same adaptability a mixed-age classroom demands.