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Wedding babysitter: The newest shaadi shenanigan in India that was long needed from the West
As Indian weddings get grander, babysitting services upgrade to help parents of young ones enjoy without juggling between cranky kids and joyous celebrations.
Anyone who has attended a big fat Indian wedding with a toddler in tow knows the drill: miss the dance floor, leave dinner half-eaten, and frantically search for quiet corners amid blaring shaadi band-baja and baraat. But as the great Indian shaadi season kicked in this year, and continues to grow bigger, louder and longer parents are no longer feeling compelled to choose between enjoying the wedding rituals and managing a child's meltdown. Thanks to the new, quietly growing trend that is aimed at upgrading the experience of wedding guests — professional child and baby-sitting services at weddings!
Going past the trend of tagging along individually-employed nannies to care for the young ones, the parents entering wedding venue of late are pleasantly surprised to witness this newly developed service that has actually existed for long in the West and is now making inroads in India. “We started offering wedding babysitting services earlier this year, and the response has been surprisingly quick,” says Gayatri Badwal from The Shaadi Sitters, adding, “Initially the response was slow but now it’s growing. We have already got six bookings lined up for the next month, which includes destination weddings as well. Though wedding babysitters is still a new concept in India, it’s gaining strong momentum especially in the urban and semi-urban areas where weddings are designed at a much bigger scale and go on for much-longer duration due to the high number of functions as well as the demand for a more experiential set-up.”
Echoing the sentiment, Divyanshi from Mother Touch Services points out how overwhelming Indian weddings can be for children. “Weddings here are not just one function but a full-fledged festival. There’s loud music, crowds and chaos, and kids often feel anxious or lost. So this service was much needed and I can certainly say that it’s is definitely here to stay.”
But the question remains that how does this shaadi shenanigan go beyond basic babysitting? “We curate a complete childrens' experience within the wedding venue. Our trained childcare professionals take full responsibility, starting from supervision to feeding and diaper changes to nap routines. They even provide emotional comfort and most importantly engage the kids in age-appropriate activities because our idea is that children shouldn’t lose out on this time to grow and learn something exciting that stays with them much after the wedding is over,” adds Badwal.
Divyanshi, on the other hand, brings the spotlight on the topic of safety, sharing how “It’s the biggest concern that parents raise”. “We inform them individually how we ensure complete criminal and background checks for all the hired sitters, to ensure they are trustworthy. In fact, after the wedding, parents have started coming to us to say that it was the most fun experience they have had at a wedding seeing their kids safe and having fun too,” she adds.
Some service providers also believe in creating a child-friendly bubble at the wedding venue itself. “Children may be tiny, but they’re still guests who shouldn’t have to sit through discomfort during any wedding,” says Shivangi Verma, from The Wedding Nanny Co, adding, “With this thought in mind, we create a supervised kids corner where there are creative play activities. We keep adding interesting, fun elements like treat boxes and there are also nap and story zones where the kids can feel the same warmth as that of a home, so that the parents are able to enjoy the celebration, stress-free and guilt-free.”
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