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Care.com is an online service that matches care & service providers in the areas of child care, tutoring, pet care, and senior care to the people who need their help. We will be continuously rolling out new features and benefits over the coming weeks and months so check back often.

If you're a care or service provider, you can create a personal Profile, which includes your contact information, availability, experience, references, and more.

Check out our How It Works page to find out more.

There are many different types of child care, pet care, senior care, and tutoring. When specifying the type of care or services that you either need or provide, it helps to know some basic industry terms:

• Child Care Terms:

  Babysitters typically provide child care on an occasional basis.

  Nannies provide more continuous, routine child care. Nannies work either part-time or full-time and sometimes live with the families they care for.

  Au Pairs are typically young people from another country who provide child care in exchange for room and board, pocket money, and the opportunity to live abroad.

• Tutoring Terms:

  Tutorsoften specialize in a particular subject area and a particular grade or ability level. Parents and tutors should be sure to discuss the grade level of the student in need of tutoring and any special challenges he or she may face as well the subject and topic with which he or she needs help.

• Senior Care Terms:

  Companions provide in-home care and companionship for seniors who are capable of independent living. While companions do not provide medical care, they may perform household chores such as cooking and cleaning.

  Caregivers provide in-home care for seniors who are not capable of independent living but who want to remain in their own homes.

  Respite Care Providers provide short-term senior care in the temporary absence of the primary caregiver.

  Assisted Living Facilities provide care for seniors who are not capable of independent living but do not require the intensive care of a nursing home. Residents of assisted living facilities receive the help they need while maintaining as much independence as possible.

  Nursing Homes provide care for seniors who require constant assistance and medical care.

  Hospice Nurses provide in-home care and comfort for seniors who are terminally ill.

• Pet Care Terms:

  Pet Sitters and Walkers provide in-home pet care. Depending on the length of the pet owners' absence, pet sitters/walkers may be responsible for any combination of meals, exercise/walks, play, companionship, cleanup, and sometimes other services such as mail retrieval, housekeeping, etc.

  Doggie Day Cares provide either drop-off or pick-up daytime services for pets while their owners are at work, usually with a group of other dogs of similar size and temperament. These can include any spectrum of a la carte services, and generally vary from person to person or business to business.

  Kennels Kennels provide long-term, out-of-home boarding for pets. In addition to meals and exercise, kennels may also provide training and grooming. The amount of attention/exercise your pet receives can vary greatly.

• Housekeeping terms:

  Housekeepers provide a wide variety of cleaning services for your home. Housekeepers may work for themselves or may be employed by a housekeeping agency.

As a care or service provider, you can join Care.com free. During enrollment you will be asked to describe the services that you provide.

A Care.com member seeking care or services will be able to search for providers that meet their needs. If a Care.com member is interested in contacting you, they have two options: they can contact you by sending you a message through the Care.com site, or they can contact you by phone using the number listed on your profile. You can control whether or not your phone number displays on your profile through the options in the Profile section of My Account. Since Care.com members can contact you by sending you a message through the Care.com site, we encourage all providers to log in to their account often to check My Messages.

Please contact Member Care with the specific details of the review.