Local Timebank

This is something I'm SO excited about! As you know, we just moved. We had lots of family and friends where we were living before but we have pretty much nada up here so it's been a challenge to be able to go out alone or even on a date night. I don't feel comfortable leaving Little A with just anyone, there are just too many horror stories out there. So, I've been trying to network through the mom's groups I participate in... so far, to no avail.

While looking for some sort of cooperative or child care swap, I came across our local timebank. I'd heard about these things in passing but had never looked into them. It's pretty cool. The way it works is that you sign up and tell the time bank what skills you have to offer (childcare, mechanics, running errands, weeding, etc). Then the time bank logs those things in. You get a list of all the services provided by people in your area. Then you trade, your skill for any skill listed.

So, for every hour of weeding you do, you can pull out an hour of any service available. Isn't that great? It just blows my mind that in a world that can seem so harsh and hard that you can still find lots of wonderful people who are willing to create community and help each other out.

Anyway, if you are interested in seeing if you have one in your area, here is the link for a database for the US. I would highly suggest giving it a look.