My wife and I are having an absurdly difficult time booking babysisters through the government supported babysitter companies. While people mark times as available, when we confirm with the person, the time slot is some how not available. Or we do arrange something and then a spot gets canceled. Literally haven’t even had a chance to have one babysitter confirmed yet, it has been that much of an impossible task.
Both of us are foreigners, but speak Japanese nearly fluent (hence why using the apps and communicating is fine). Anyone else ever run into this, or is there something else going on maybe we don’t know about?
2 comments
this sounds tough. what are these companies? i’ve used kidsline once (it was a total faff and felt like tinder for sitters…) but i think carefinder is quite good? poppins is usually recommended too although i think it’s pricey.
Race also counts if they have any idea about it.
And while its easy and tempting to just blame mean spiritedness, I am sure some of these people are genuinely worried they will make “mistakes” or say or do something offensive.
In my country I grew up with variety of race, culture and individual and family quirks. Most Japanese just can’t handle it, or feel they can’t.
And I can’t blame them. Take for example some guy takes his 8 year old daughter to an public bath. I have known Americans that will absolutely loose their minds if they saw that. Or their kid saw a boob on a magazine rack. And I have seen Westerners threaten violence over some pretty mundane stuff. And I am a lightweight myself, but to most Japanese I may as well be an MMA champ. Incidents and knowledge like this give “foreigners” a bad reputation, and frankly, I cannot say its undeserved.
I suggest finding a babysitter from among your friends. Even I was once put in charge of a 6 month old baby, try as I did to get out of it, I was the only one, so I helped.