Sitters sitting on hands as demand light

By CATHERINE MASTERS and LOUISA CLEAVE

Organisations gearing up to babysit on the night of the biggest party of the year are finding parents don't seem to want them.

A telephone survey of agencies and individuals shows that contrary to expectation, Millennium night demand so far is slim from parents wanting care while they party or a sitter if they have to work.

In fact, it is lower than for previous New Year celebrations and is far outweighed by people wanting aged relatives taken care of, says Fiona Newey, the owner and manager of Domestic Personnel, one of Auckland's biggest domestic help and child care agencies.

She says of the regular 200 babysitters on her books, not one has been offered a job, despite the relatively bargain rate of $25 an hour compared to the odd private nanny charging around $800 for the night.

Fiona Newey says those sorts of exorbitant prices have helped to kill interest in child care on the Millennium.

One client was flying to Fiji - where a baby sitter will cost $3 an hour - because she believed it worked out cheaper.

Of clients staying in Auckland many wanted their children with them: "... so that when they grow up they can tell their children they saw the Millennium in.

"And if they're under five those sorts of people are still breast feeding and have little children and very few of them have the funds really to go out that night."

Some people who had booked a babysitter earlier in the year had since cancelled because "grandma's going to do it. They've had plenty of time to ask around and find someone to do it because they don't see the Millennium as a big deal.

"By this time we would have 20 or 30 babysits booked for that night and we have about five. It's gone reverse."

Bookings for elderly clients were higher.

"You don't go home and look after mother on New Year's Eve because the live-in carer can't, you get somebody."

A variety of groups and centres are running sleep-over parties for children, but some of those are also finding bookings are slow.

Maree Wakelin, activities co-ordinator with the Meadowbank Community Centre, said their price was $100 per child plus $10 for every additional hour.

Demand had not exactly been incredible, she said.

"We've had lots and lots of inquiries but not too many people actually committing."

Many people had still not decided what they were doing on New Year's Eve and there may still be a flurry of last minute bookings.

One woman advertising in a local North Shore newspaper said she had not had a single enquiry.

A Hamilton couple have canned plans to care for just over 60 children at a fun "sleep-over" in a local hotel after not receiving a single enquiry.

Jennifer Reid said she had hired two conference rooms and eight professional nannies for the night.

But despite advertising through schools and putting flyers in letter-boxes there appeared to be no interest.

"I'm presuming it's Kiwis leaving things till the last minute or people are not staying in Hamilton."

She believed the $150 cost per child and $100 for any other child from the same family was not high for the 7pm-10am service which would have included supper and breakfast.

Auckland child care centre Noah's Arc says it slashed its price from $300 per child to $175, or $550 for a family of up to three children, and has so far filled 10-15 of its 36 places.

A Wellington man offering a camp for up to 1000 children aged 6-12 said he had 200 paid bookings so far.

David Wilson is holding the camp at his golf range in Tawa and said he had karaoke, movies, sports and games planned for the kids.

Gisborne 2000 First Light project manager Derek Allan said the city council had abandoned plans to run a child care centre because of possible difficulties finding responsible care-givers or parents dumping their children so they could go out and party.

"I guess from the council's perspective it really wasn't up to us to encourage it because people are aware of their responsibilities."