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Fantastic Elastic!
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TF spoke with Jeanne Shimazaki, co-founder of the fabulous babysitting service, Elasticare.
What made you decide to start Elasticare?
The idea came from two directions – availability and quality. As a mother and a kindergarten teacher myself, I recognized from my own experience and from parents of the children in my kindergarten that it is not always possible to find someone to look after children at times when a parent cannot take care of them. I felt that more could be done for the children and that links to the second point about quality. We want our parents to be sure that the person entrusted with caring for their children has a good background and will take an active role in looking after them, do more than just “sit” with their children.
How did the company name come about?
The original name was going to be “Elastic”. Elastic stands for Early Learning Age Support (in) Tokyo (for) International Children but we felt that we really wanted to emphasize the “care” part of our service. We decided on the simple change of adding “…care” to the end of the name to stress to parents that this is the part we take most seriously.
Can you tell us a little about your services?
We provide early childhood education and nursery services. This includes baby-sitting as the core but our team is a group of experienced early years teachers and child-care providers so we want to do more. Within the time available, we want to make educational activity a core part of what we do – reading and playing with the children in an instructive way. We also will provide more specialist teaching services for children up to elementary school level if the child is experiencing difficulties at school and needs additional support.
What sets you apart from other sitter services?
I think that other sitter services are an extension of domestic help services. We concentrate on the needs of the child from an educational and developmental point of view.
Tell us about your team of sitters.
Our existing team members are all experienced child-care providers with a range of qualifications and nationalities. All speak English and in the case of non-Japanese, we only sign-up staff with valid working visas. Since we believe in continuity, one of the options we offer is that parents can request a particular sitter, subject to availability, so that a relationship can be built up that reassures both parents and children and provides consistency in the care.
What do you consider to be the most important responsibility in this job?
Absolutely taking care of the children – making sure they not only ARE safe and sound but that both they and their parents FEEL that they are safe and sound.
How does Elasticare deal with unforseen circumstances?
This is where we can be elastic and flexible. We do like the parents we are helping to try to commit to be home in time for our sitters to get home themselves by public transport. We will try to schedule a sitter who does not have a long journey home to minimize both their traveling time and the cost of a taxi ride, if it proves necessary.
What is the policy if an emergency occurs on the job?
We have standard emergency procedures and we ask parents in advance to agree that we can take action if an emergency arises.
How far do Elasticare’s services extend around Tokyo?
Our team is concentrated around south-west Tokyo, mainly Minato-ku, Shibuya-ku, Meguro-ku, Shinagawa-ku and Setagaya-ku but we are flexible.
Can you explain your booking procedure?
Bookings may be requested by telephone, email or, through our website www.elasticare.jp. A booking request should be made no later that 12pm the day before the service is required and a confirmation will be sent back the same day. Last minute booking requests (i.e. later that 12pm the day before the service is required) will be accepted but strictly on an “if possible” basis.
How to get in contact with Elasticare?
Telephone (03) 3726 6627 or email elasticare@gmail.com
About TF Tribe
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