Many AHS students noticed the high demand for babysitting this summer after their phones continued to buzz as the next parent was contacting them in hopes of finding someone responsible to look after their children. With the Community School pre-school closing and tourists flooding the town during the summer, childcare is becoming increasingly more difficult to find.

Senior Mckenna Woodrow babysat about every other day over the summer, seeing first hand the increasing demand.

“One day I had to turn down five people! I feel like the demand is increasing because of all the tourists coming into town. The network has increased as people pass on my number to their friends looking for someone to take care of their kids,” Woodrow said.

Since the demand is so high, it seems that parents are willing to trust teens more easily with their children if they hope to take a date night away from the kids or go on hike with their friends. Many parents will hire teens who are not CPR/first aid trained and have had little experience in the past because of the higher demand. Art teacher Stephanie Nixon experienced this over the summer.

“It’s really difficult for locals and teachers to use our student contacts for babysitting because the visitors and tourists seem to be dominating our supply. Every time I called for services, the students were already booked,” Nixon said.

Because of this, there has also been a rise in the cost for a babysitter. For students, it’s a great paying job. For most, the minimum you can get paid is $10 and the maximum is $25, but the average is about $20 per hour. According to the Huffington Post, the average pay per hour for one kid in Denver is $10.25 and in San Francisco, which is the highest paying city for a babysitter, is $14 per hour for one kid. This clearly shows that in Aspen there is a significant difference in the rates that people must be willing to pay in order to take a break from their children for a few hours.

Another babysitter in high demand this summer was senior Theresa Martin. She babysat at least twice a week and sometimes more. She experienced the hard choice of having to turn down regular clients when multiple families would ask her to babysit on the same day.

“I turned down a couple of people because I was too busy. When that happened I would usually choose the people I babysit regularly or people who paid more,” Martin said.

Although there has always been a demand for child care in the Aspen Valley for tourists and locals alike, many noticed a significant increase this past summer because of the influx of tourists and the growing population in the Aspen School District.