When you join mumscircle.com, you invite a selected number of close friends, who are also parents, to join your circle.

Each mumscircle is unique to you, and you have full control over who you invite and accept into your circle. Just because you invite a friend to join your circle, whom already has their own mumscircle, you don’t inherit their friends, just that person. You have full control over your circle and who you wish to join it.

When you have your circle set up you’ll be able to swap babysitting amongst other members of your circle in exchange for points, saving you the cost of a babysitter and ensuring someone you trust is looking after your child.

As a member of a mumscircle, you choose which friends to add to your ‘friends list’, which makes sure that only your chosen best friends are asked to babysit for you. Similarly, you’ll only be asked to babysit for friends who have added you to their list.

The average size for a circle is between four and eight people, but you can have as many people as you like or as few as two to start a circle, including yourself.

You should never invite, or accept an invitation from, someone you don’t know.

When you want to request a babysitter, you will just need to input a few details and mumscircle will send out an email on your behalf to your chosen list of contacts within your circle, removing the need for any of your friends to feel obligated to babysit when they might have something else planned. Mumscircle then collates the responses of all available babysitters for you to choose who you’d like to babysit. When you select whom you wish to babysit, we’d suggest you choose the first person to respond to make it fair, but this is entirely your choice.

When you start or join a mumscircle, you automatically earn 40 points to get you started, and you cannot leave the circle until you’ve earned your original starting score of 40 points or more.

When a friend babysits, points will automatically be deducted from your account and credited to your friend’s account, at midnight of the date the event is scheduled, based on a rate of 4 points an hour (1 point every fifteen minutes). You earn points back, at the same rate, when you babysit for any friend within your circle, which makes it fair. Please note though the minimum call out charge for a babysitter is 4 points, so even if you only need half an hour, you will need to spend a minimum of 4 points.

A. Yes – it’s your circle, so you can add and remove friends whenever you like.

A. If your friend cancels with more than 24 hours’ notice, you can cancel your babysitting date through the web site and no points will be transferred out of your account. If your friend cancels with under 24 hours’ notice, you’ll need to ask your friend to manually transfer the points back to you, and find an alternative babysitter.

A. It’s completely up to you who you want to select to babysit. One thing we would say, is it’s often fairer to choose the first person to respond to you, or to select a friend who hasn’t had a chance to babysit for awhile. What we would say to you though, who you decide to leave your child with is at your own risk, so make sure you know them and are happy to trust them with looking after your child.

A. If you cancel with more than 24 hours’ notice, you can cancel your babysitting date through the web site (by clicking cancel under view event), and no points will be transferred out of your account. If you cancel with under 24 hours’ notice, you’ll need to ask your friend to manually transfer the points back to you, and they may wish to charge you a fee for the late notice (but this will be at the discretion of both you and your friend).

A. Yes, just go to the transfer points section of the left hand navigation bar.

A. You’ll need to speak to your friend and ask them to transfer back the points spent. You’ll also need to try and understand why they didn’t turn up and, if it becomes a habit, you’ll know not to ask them to babysit again. You also may wish to remove them from your circle.

A. It is your responsibility to verify it is a friend whom you’re requesting or accepting into your circle, and you trust them enough to look after your child. Check their email address details and profile before accepting them, and if you’re still not sure it is who they say they are, call them to verify. If you feel someone is acting unlawfully on the site, please contact us at contact@mumscircle.com and we will investigate and look to remove them from the site, if they are breaking the house rules.

A. Yes just go to Account information/edit profile pages and you will be able to update your details, add a photo, or opt in/out of our exciting monthly newsletter update.