I wonder whether it’s easier to be a parent now than it was a generation ago. When my mom looks at all the baby-related items around the house, she laughs, “We didn’t have any of this when I had you.” We’re talking: woombies, hooded towels, a shusher, a diaper genie, a UPF 50+ sun protection car seat shade, night vision video monitor. I mean, our diapers even tell you at-a-glance whether or not your baby has peed. Before I was a parent, I used to shake my head at all the crap babies accumulated even before they were born. I thought the average registry was excessive. But I’ve changed my tune. Every single item has made our life easier someway, somehow.
Another integral aspect of day-to-day living now versus then is the internet! As long as I have access to the interweb, I can live in a bubble and have everything delivered on-demand. I find it hard to believe how easy life is these days. Here are the services that I use.
Who doesn’t have an Amazon Prime account these days? Books, vitamins, baby registry gifts, diapers, toiletries delivered to your doorstep in 2 days. Has anyone tried the new Prime Music included in the membership? Lots of good popular tunes. I added a bunch of lullabies for the baby.
Cost: $99/year
Same-day or next-day delivery of groceries (with minimum $35 purchase), currently serving Seattle and California. If Amazon Fresh comes to your city, take advantage of the free 30 day promo. I’m in love with it. Well worth the cost. Mainly, you don’t have to waste your time going to the grocery store, finding parking, and standing in line to pay. Because time is money! I don’t even think the groceries are marked up that much. My litmus is a box of Lean Cuisines which are $2 on Amazon Fresh. I used to buy Lean Cuisines by the cart full when they were on sale at Safeway for $2 or $2.50.
Cost: $299/year (includes Amazon Prime)
This service serves all the major metropolitan cities. It delivers from a whole bevy of restaurants such as Barbacco, Cha Cha Cha, La Mediterranee, and Ramen Underground in SF.
Cost: Delivery charge
I think Instacart is more wide-spread geographically, serving SF, NYC, Chicago, Boston, Austin, etc. You select items from various grocers (i.e., Costco, Whole Foods, Safeway) and you’re charged a delivery fee. I used to be a huge fan of Instacart when they partnered with Trader Joe’s, but now they don’t. Insert big sad face here.
I know there are a bunch of food-delivery sites, but this one is probably the most popular here in SF. You choose items from a daily menu of dishes made fresh that day (sides, salads, entrees, desserts, kids stuff, desserts, fresh-pressed juices, coffee, wine), then schedule the delivery for that evening. There are instructions labeled on each item on how to warm it up (usually a couple minutes in the microwave or oven).
Cost: There’s a delivery cost, but I opted for $39/year for free delivery and no minimum order, which means I can buy one of their chocolate chip cookies and they’ll deliver it to me that evening.
Post any task (i.e., cleaning, moving, handyman, personal assistance) online and errand-runners (i.e., TaskRabbits) will bid for the job. Choose based on price, qualifications, or reviews.
Task: I’ve gotten so many hand-me-down clothes for the baby. I was stressed just looking at all these boxes in the nursery. I posted for someone to sort through and organize the clothes. I chose someone who is a professional organizer. She came and sorted all the newborn and 0-3 month clothes into a dresser, then organized the rest of the clothes into batches based on age. It was such a relief to have that one task done.
I LOVE TASK RABBIT!
Cost: TaskRabbits will bid for the task and indicate their hourly rate.
There are lots of child care sites in the Bay Area, including Bananaberry, Care, Sittercity, Urbansitter. I’ve only used Wondersitter, though. I like how their sitters are heavily vetted, and they are the only agency that uses Trustline, the background check service mandated by California. Book a babysitter and they’ll come to you. I’ve only used this service once and the sitter was excellent. Franco was so at ease with her.
Cost: $15 booking fee to the vendor, then an hourly rate paid to the sitter.
Alright, what sites/services am I missing?
Have you tried any of these?
Yes, yes, yes to Amazon Prime, but back when I had my girls it was called Amazon Mom and was free believe it or not, but I guess they lost a lot of money on this and then changed it to Amazon Prime for all charging $79 and now I guess it is been raised to $99. But still was so amazing back when I first had the girls and relied on it for everything. I also used Stop and Shop’s PeaPod Delivery for groceries back then, too. So, you are totally preaching to the choir on this 🙂
This is an AWESOME list! I am definitely going to try Task Rabbit because I’m tired of cleaning my bathrooms and have a list of nonsense that I need organized and I don’t know where to start :(… Waah!! Yes registries are helpful when they are thought out and not filled with crap – if you fill it wisely your peeps will get you things that will definitely help you not clutter your space. 🙂 Hope you guys are all doing well Catherine! –Iva
I LOVE Amazon Prime. Amazon fresh sounds pretty dang convenient too. Is there anything you can’t get at Amazon? I think it’s cool how the internet is making it simpler to get baby sitters-not that I need one but I’ve heard how difficult it can be.
Amazon Mom offers discounts on diapers and other baby essentials and includes Prime two-day shipping. I got a free 3 month trial of Amazon Mom and sort of got hooked to the free Prime shipping. It just expired last week and I’m debating now whether to sign up. It costs $99/year, which is the same as Amazon Prime I believe.
I love Amazon Prime. I tried to buy groceries online when the kids were little but I found I preferred to go alone at night once my husband was home. Even in the 13 years since I’ve had an infant, services available online have exploded. Now Munchery…that sounds divine.
We have something like Munchery here and I totally did it after the baby was born!
Amazon Prime is awesome. Didn’t there used to be an Amazon Mom or something like that?
Cassidy tells me stories about a delivery service that used to be in SF and they’d literally source anything you asked for. Anything.
They quickly went out of business, sadly!
Amazon Prime is one of my most favorite things. I love the idea of Task Rabbit – I’m going to remember that one! I used to use a grocery delivery service and looked for one that serves my mom’s area in Florida but no luck. I guess that even though the seniors need the service, many aren’t willing to pay for the convenience.
Wowwwwww….. You know so much cool stuff. I might give Amazon Fresh a try since they deliver to Southern California. I used Vons grocery delivery when I first had the twins. They hooked me with their offer of free delivery on your first order. Grocery shopping with a newborn is a humongous inconvenience. We don’t have cable so we watch a lot of the shows available on Amazon Prime (Yo Gabba Gabba, Sesame Street, Curious George, Veggie Tales). We truly have it a lot easier than our parents did! Thanksfully my dad was around when my mom went into labor 5 out of the 6 times she had kids. Otherwise, how did dads back then know to come home and get their wife to a hospital if they didn’t have cell phones or pagers (he was paged for baby #6).
I LOVE amazon prime but they haven’t launched amazon fresh in NYC yet. That would be a game changer, I hate lugging my groceries across town.
Love Amazon Prime Music. It is great.
Love this! I need to book mark this post. I have been seeing the Amazon Fresh trucks everywhere. I’m thinking of trying it. One less thing for me to do. I signed up for TaskRabbit and have yet to use it! What is wrong with me? I have a whole office that needs to be organized and I just haven’t been able to get to it!
These services make me want to move to a big city!
I LOVE Amazon Prime! We’ve had it for years. And my sister in law uses an online babysitting service. She has been really happy with it.
I never knew about food delivery sites. We just order from places that have their own drivers, but I’ll have to check and see if Pittsburgh has any.
Great list Catherine! I need to renew my prime Stat. I think I need task rabbit to sell the millions of baby thing that I have that are in fantastic condition! See you in a few days!
I know someone who is the mother of one-year old twins, is pregnant again and works full-time. She loves the Peapod grocery site.
Oooo! I have to check out Instacart and Task Rabbit! I could use both of those. I am in a fight with my current food delivery service so if I could replace them, that would be great! Also, you should check out Soap.com and all of their sister sites (esp diapers.com). They have really good stuff and it ships SO fast!
WOW! This is an amazing list!! I just heard of Amazon Fresh and am sad that they don’t service NJ yet… I would definitely want to take advantage of the 30 days free to see if it’s worth the cost but if you think the groceries are comparable, it might be. And yes, I’ve finally caught on to the amazing world of Amazon Prime 🙂
Hope all is well with you, sweet pea. I’ve missed you. XOXO