Meet Lilia ?
Lilia Bouajila came to the UK from France five years ago with her employer (a leading Investment Bank). As a single mum working full-time, with no family in London, she was understandably unsure who to turn to when looking for childcare. She initially relied on a neighbour to babysit, but wanted a more reliable form of support.
She told us: “It’s always a challenge to find childcare when you don’t have family or friends in the country you live in. It’s even more difficult when you’re a single parent. You can’t really rely on parents of school friends for sleepovers and so on, as that really depends on what their plans are. The less support you have, the more creative you need to become.”
How she found Bubble
Luckily, Lilia soon discovered Bubble via a friend. She was immediately interested in it, as it seemed to be a childcare solution that could fit around her needs as a working parent:
“I first heard about Bubble when somebody recommended it to me at a party. In my job, I am responsible for the UK Client experience of the bank’s web solutions and my first impression about Bubble was a good experience. The app is well designed, offering a lot of options, and is smart and easy to use.”
Unlike other childcare solutions, she found that Bubble enabled her to book ad hoc support, whenever she needed it and without having to book well in advance. As a result, this empowered her in her childcare decisions, and gave her the flexibility she had been looking for:
“Bubble gives me freedom. I can go out whenever I want to – I don’t have to ask for favours or arrange my life around other people’s schedules. I use Bubble about twice a month, on average.”
Finding the childcare that fits her needs
One of the unique things about Bubble is that parents are in complete control of who they book – unlike agencies or nurseries, you decide who looks after your children. You can browse sitters’ profiles and read reviews by other parents, even messaging them for more information or arranging an interview with the sitter through the app. You can choose someone who fits your family’s specific needs, which Lilia has found particularly helpful:
“Bubble allows you to choose the sitter you want – I can look for somebody who speaks French, which is mostly the language we speak at home, and that’s really nice for my daughter as they can connect quickly and feel more comfortable together. That flexibility isn’t possible with other services I’ve used.”
By browsing sitter profiles, parents get a more personalised experience – they can look at the sitters’ interests and experience, and watch their profile videos to get a better sense of what the person is like! Not only does this make them feel more comfortable, it can also help children to feel more excited about who will be looking after them:
“When we arrived in the UK, my daughter was four and a half, and she’s almost 10 now. It’s no longer an issue when I tell her that I’m going out and that she will have a babysitter in the evening. She actually quite likes helping me choose a sitter and being able to look at the photos. She usually wants one who is young and pretty! She’ll always tell me what she thinks of a sitter and wants to put a review with me so that her experience counts. It’s always a thumbs up!”
Simpler childcare for busy lives
In terms of the app’s features, Bubble provides a secure in-app messaging system so that parents don’t have to provide any personal information until they feel comfortable doing so. They also pay securely via the app, meaning that there’s no fumbling around for cash at the end of a sit – making it a truly seamless experience.
“The in-app chat is good, and the fact you can have the sitter’s number which is very reassuring and useful for giving indications on how to find the house, for example. I had previously tried using a nanny agency during the day and had to leave for work very quickly, but only realised once I’d left that I didn’t have her mobile number. This made me a bit anxious as I didn’t like the fact that I couldn’t just call her – and with Bubble I’ve never had any problems communicating with my sitter!”
As well as using the app to book childcare support during the day, Lilia has also used Bubble for evening babysitting when she’s had after-work social events:
“I had a case where there were last-minute drinks after work that I couldn’t simply miss. I literally got on the app at 5pm and managed to raise a babysitter request, jumped on the tube to collect my daughter from school, found a couple of options, quickly made my decision and there was already somebody on their way to my house. I thought ‘wow, this is amazing. It’s worked really well for me, my social life (that I didn’t have after becoming a parent!) and of course my daughter.’”
Find out how Bubble for Business can help you
Lilia is just one of the thousands of working parents benefitting from employer-supported childcare. By receiving Bubble’s premium service for free, she’s been able to book childcare whenever she needs to, without having to worry about any hidden fees or scheduling in advance. To learn more about how Bubble for Business can help you support your working parents, simply let us know here and we’ll get back to you soon.
In the meantime, if you’d like to see how the app works you can download it for free on iOS or Android
