Babysitting for free without guilt? Here's a new app to help busy parents

AKRON, OH (WOIO) - How about free babysitting that's trustworthy and guilt-free? It's not a gimmick, it's a new app that two Akron moms created that works like a babysitting exchange.

It's called Komae, which is Greek for "village." To use the app, you create your own "village," or network of moms that only you invite or accept (kind of like Friends on Facebook).

We talked to the creator and a local mom who uses it.

Kristen Cash has the comfort of knowing her trusted friend is watching her kids, for free, with no mom guilt. "Nobody feels like they're being taken advantage of because everybody is earning and spending the same," said Cash.

She earns babysitting, by babysitting herself. It's worked out through the locally-created app Komae. "It takes a village to raise your child."

Creator, and mom of two boys herself, Audrey Wallace said she was getting tired of the constant struggle to find sitters. "It's expensive and I've asked my mother-in-law so many times I don't want to text her again," said Wallace.

Through the app, users create their own network of potential babysitters, basically other moms like you. "You invite the friends that you know and trust to your village so you have to agree to be in each other's village," said Wallace.

When you need a sitter, you send out a request and it works like a text message.

When someone agrees to sit, you accept their request and then pay with points. Everyone starts with 20 points. You earn more when you babysit. "I sit for you, you sit for me and none of us pay for babysitting anymore," explained Wallace.

And while Cash is on her way out the door this time, she has been on the other side too; agreeing to babysit just the other day. What she likes is that "sitting" turns into more of a playdate for the kids.

"All of the kids are really good friends and we were just out in the backyard playing for a couple of hours, it was really easy and I earned points I was able to use for babysitting," said Cash. "It's really important that we all have help when we need it, and that really solves that problem for a lot of people."

A new option just added on the app is a playdate feature. So you can request a playdate before you accept a person into your village.

And coming this fall, a pet sitting and carpooling option will be available.

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