> General Help

Index of FAQs:

If you are looking for care, join Care.com now by filling out our enrollment form. Simply answer a few questions about yourself and the type of care services you need.

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

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.

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're a brand-new service and will be continuously rolling out new features and benefits over the coming weeks and months.

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

If you're looking for care, join Care.com to connect with providers who meet your needs and requirements. Start by searching for providers in your area. When you find providers that match your needs, connect with them through Care.com.

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

We respect your privacy and security and take appropriate, industry-standard measures to ensure that we provide a safe and secure community. For example, we use Verisign SSL to ensure that any sensitive information you enter on our website is transmitted to us securely over the internet. We've put safeguards in place to ensure that our servers are secure and we continuously monitor our servers for intrusion attempts. In addition, we employ encryption technology to protect your personal information. Read our Privacy Policy for more information.

There are also steps that you can take to keep the Care.com community, as well your own information, secure. Read more about what you can do on our Safety Tips page.

If you've forgotten your password, request a temporary password by entering your email address and zip code. We'll email you a temporary password so you can log in to your account and reset your password.

Whether you're looking for or providing care and services, it's necessary for us to make a certain amount of information available to other Care.com members so that an appropriate match can be made. For example, if you're a provider, we will allow people seeking your services to view your first name, first initial of your last name, city, state, and the availability information that you have entered in your profile. We will never display your home address or your email address. To make it easier for those seeking care to contact you, your phone number will display to registered Care.com members on your profile. However, if you prefer not to display your phone number, you can select to hide your phone number by changing your preferences under the Profile section in My Account.

We review the profiles of all care and service providers before they are available to other members. Generally, we are able to review all new profiles within several business days. If you don't see your profile listed on the site, please check back in a day or so.

The first step is to find a provider that meets your needs. You can do this by logging in to your account and searching for providers in your area. When viewing your search results, click on the name of a provider to see their detailed profile. When viewing a provider's profile, simply click on the "Contact Details" tab for information about how to contact that provider.

I'm a provider. How can people seeking my help contact me?

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.

I'm a provider. I received a job offer that seems "too good to be true". What should I do?

If a job offer seems "too good to be true", then it probably is. You should be extra cautious if you receive a message offering employment and advance payment by check without an interview with the family or even a phone call. Refer to our Safety Tips for more information on avoiding internet job scams.

I'm a care provider. I would like to remain a member of Care.com, but I will not be able to take any new jobs for a while. What should I do?

If you are a care provider and you will not be able to take new jobs for a while (for example, if you are traveling for the summer), we recommend that you reflect this in your Profile. You can do this by logging into your account and going to the Profile area. Under the section of the page labeled "Membership and Care Service Information" you can simply update your status in any service from "Active" to "Inactive" by clicking the "Make Inactive" link. Just remember, when you're ready to take new jobs again, be sure to return to your account and change your Profile status back to "Active."

Additionally, we recommend that you update your Profile description to reflect that you are not currently available to take any new jobs. Just click the "Edit Profile" link associated with each service that you are participating to update this information. The "Edit Profile" link is also found in the "Membership and Care Service Information" section of your Profile page."

You can manage your preferences for communications from Care.com at any time through the Profile section under My Account.

Please note, however, that regardless of your communication preference settings, we will still need to send you administrative emails and updates from time to time concerning your Care.com membership.

Can I cancel my account?

You can manage your membership settings in the Profile section under My Account.