Ask any mother and she’ll probably tell you that childcare is no walk in the park.
Some working mums eventually leave work to become stay-at-home mums, and mums who choose to remain working often have to rely on third-party caregivers to watch over their children.
When it comes to hiring the right nanny then, many parents worry over whether or not they’re leaving their children in good hands.
These are the 2 major problems that Nadira Yussof and Muhaini Mahmud, working mums of 6 and 1 respectively, have identified.
So, to address them, they launched Kiddocare in 2018.
Mother Knows Best
As the CEO of Kiddocare, Nadira is also a known figure among women and entrepreneur based NGOs at the local and regional level.
When she started Kiddocare with Muhaini, putting together an app wasn’t their first priority—it was to come up with a process to ensure that the babysitters on their platform would be equipped with the right knowledge and skills.
With news about children (some as young as 6 months old) being abused by third-party caregivers often popping up in the news in Malaysia, Nadira and Muhaini knew that they had to work closely with relevant authorities to screen babysitters.
To become a babysitter on Kiddocare, one would not only be subjected to background and criminal record checks by Royal Malaysian Police, but would also have to get:
- Babysitting training from experts with Kursus Asuhan Permata (KAP) certification,
- CPR/first aid certification by Pertubuhan CPR Malaysia (CPR4Malaysia),
- A health check from clinics and hospitals,
- A psychometric assessment by Harrison Assessment.
The last step of the screening process is an in-person interview with Nadira and Muhaini. Sometimes an applicant may pass all the other processes but still get turned down after the interview, depending on the co-founders’ decision.
Kiddocare also enforces its own SOPs, but encourages parents to provide adequate guidelines on caring for their children so that the possibility of risks and mishaps is lessened.
Freeing Up Your Time
On the platform, you’ll find a few choices of babysitting plans:
- 2 hours (minimum) for RM50
- 4 hours for RM80
- 6 hours for RM110
- 8 hours for RM140
- 10 hours for RM170
- Long term plan at a quoted pricing
These are only introductory prices, so they may be subject to change without prior notice. The prices are also applicable for 1 child, and RM5 surcharge will be applied for a second and third child.
RM10 surcharge will be applied for the fourth child and any subsequent children, and all the prices are subject to a 7% processing and admin fee.
Generally, Kiddocare allows for up to 3 children between the ages of 2 to 12 per babysitter, and a second Kiddocarer (as the caregivers on the platform are called) is only necessary when the above number is exceeded.
Kiddocare’s service hours are only up to 12 midnight but can extend them if required, with an additional hourly surcharge.
To make a booking, you’ll have to first register on the platform, because Kiddocare’s app on iOS and Android is currently being upgraded (at the time of writing) and therefore inaccessible.
For a guaranteed booking of your preferred Kiddocarer, you’re advised to book in advance (at least 5 days prior to the needed appointment) and Kiddocare will inform you of the booking status on WhatsApp.
Taking It Outside
Besides basic babysitting, Kiddocare also offers a basic playdate package at RM250 which includes activities like storytelling/finger puppets, easy origami and arts and crafts, basic edible playdough, and board games.
This package involves 2 Kiddocarers, a maximum of 5 children aged 3 and above per package, a 4-hour duration, and takes place within the confined area of a home, office or gated playground.
In case you want to add on more activities, you have 3 paid sets to choose from: Active Play, Creative Play, and Messy Play.
Most people would associate babysitting as a service that’s limited to within the home, but Kiddocare also has a pop up nanny service for company events and a travel nanny service where you can hire a nanny to travel with you overseas (RM350/day) or domestically (RM250/day).
For their pop up nanny service, they set up a small temporary babysitting service during an event where you can leave your children with Kiddocare and have them play age-appropriate activities.
More Clients And More Competition
One of the main challenges Kiddocare faces is that its number of clients is growing faster than the number of babysitters they have, but they still see it as a positive challenge.
Kiddocare’s services are only available in Klang Valley as of now, but they have plans to expand to other Malaysian urban areas like Penang, Ipoh, Johor Bahru, Malacca Town, and Kuching, for example.
In their third year, they aim to replicate Kiddocare’s model in 3 major ASEAN cities: Singapore, Jakarta and Manila too.
With their launch back in 2018, Nadira and Muhaini were confident that they were the first in the region to provide a digital platform for babysitting services.
They had even identified their closest competition at the time, Cleanaholics (which had a value added babysitting service) and MyBabysitter, but held the advantage of having a stricter vetting process for their caregivers.
Now, however, with SitterLUV having entered the scene in January 2019 with their own strict vetting process where they’ve rejected about 90% of their applicants so far, I would say Kiddocare has even closer competition.
It will be interesting to watch the growth of existing platforms for babysitting services and the babysitting industry, especially with how many more women are beginning to enter or remain in the workforce despite having young children.
All this simply means that we’ll have a larger pool of trusted babysitters vetted by reputable companies and more employment opportunities within the caregiving sector, so I definitely see it as an advantage.
- You can read more about other Malaysian startups we’ve written on here.
Featured Image Credit: Kiddocare
