We have the teenage daughter of one of our board members that would babysit. One of the teachers let us use her room - the kids could play games, watch a movie. At the beginning of the year, there were lots of kids but by the end she was only watching 5 or 6. She was paid $100 for the year

baconboo2, What we have done is set up an event that takes place at the same time as the PTO meeting. It is supervised by either teachers or parent volunteers. Parents are encouraged to attend the meeting because we do not allow "drop-offs" to these events. Some examples are Pajama Night, Movie Night, Craft Night, Bike Safety Speakers, etc., that coincide with what is happening each month. If you want further info, my email is This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.!

If you want to do this, you may want to have parents RSVP for the number of children attending.
We used to get another parent, usually a spouse to do this.
This didn't really help our attendance and we had an issue with a woman showing up with her 2 kids and then 3 more SHE was getting paid to watch. We also had trouble with very small children needing diapers changed and todlers trying to run off.
I've also heard of lots of people making it work, it just seemed to be a very stressful thing for us.
We live a few blocks from our school and last year my husband would watch whatever children needed attending at our house, give them a snack and make sure their homework was done.

does anyone know of babysitters being used at the pto meetings that away the attendance will pick up? Does it work? If you do how do you go about everything to get it set up? either post or email me at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.