Babysitters of Boulder: How Genna Hackley Sees Childcare Differently
Ask Genna Hackley, founder of Babysitters of Boulder, about childcare and she won't sugarcoat the conversation.
She'll tell you that childcare is critical infrastructure—the invisible support system that allows families, businesses, and entire communities to function. Yet despite how essential it is, far too many families are still piecing together care through verbal agreements, last-minute Facebook posts, and what she jokingly refers to as "a wing and a prayer."
It's a perspective that has shaped everything about Babysitters of Boulder. More than a childcare referral service, the company was built as a safer, more professional and more reliable to find care—and a system of mutual respect and living wages for the professionals providing care.
Building Trust in an Industry That Often Runs on Hope
Hackley started in childcare in 2005 and returned to the field in 2017, struck by how little had changed. Families and caregivers still found each other through social media groups and word of mouth — no contracts, no certainty of backup care, sporadic background checks and CPR. It was just as precarious from the caregiver's side: hourly rates negotiated with no state standards, little financial security, and "a social media vacuum of bad advice." So she built Babysitters of Boulder to connect families and caregivers locally and bring personalized help to a system that mostly ran on luck.
What began as care for the people around her pulled her into something larger. She'll never forget a call from a father seeking a temporary nanny: his newborn was in the NICU, his wife was navigating postpartum psychosis, and their two-year-old had developed behavioral issues and could no longer attend daycare. One set of grandparents had maxed out their travel visas; the other was local but managing dementia. "And this was a parent who could afford to call on my services," she says. "There are so many parents who will never pick up the phone, because it's not an option." She sat in silence a long time after that call. She takes a lot of long walks to clear her head.
The fate of families and caregivers, she's come to believe, is intertwined — they only thrive if they thrive together. She's watched childcare workers drive themselves to the bone without paid leave or health insurance (she's suffered a serious back injury herself) doing work that is also emotionally enormous. For years she's been part of Mother Forward, Domestic Workers Alliance, nonprofits advocating for paid family leave legislation, funding, and training for early childhood care workers.
"The United States provided a childcare program during World War II so women could go to work," she points out. "It's been done, and it can be again."
Selling What She Truly Knows
Hackley credits the years she spent as a sitter and temporary nanny — before founding the company — with teaching her the thing no map can. "I am selling what I truly know," she says. She knows what it's like for a sitter who lives in Erie to drive to North Boulder, to plan around Bolder Boulder traffic every Memorial Day, and that the day before a bomb cyclone will be seventy degrees and gorgeous. She's just as candid about how small a world Boulder is — the parent you sit for might sit on the board of a school where you'll apply, or own your favorite restaurant.
"Your reputation is your greatest asset, and it will always precede you."
Being independently owned and local also lets her move fast when the community needs it. After the 2021 Marshall Fire tore through Boulder County, Babysitters of Boulder moved immediately, partnering with the Lafayette nonprofit Sister Carmen to provide dozens of displaced families with childcare, free of charge. For families who had lost homes overnight, it meant trusted hands for their kids while they navigated insurance, shelter, and everything else the fire had upended. "It was easy to make that decision and quickly implement it," Hackley says, "because we are independently owned and local." It's the clearest example of what she means when she talks about knowing your community well enough to show up the moment it counts.
Building an Inclusive Team That Reflects the Community It Serves
Hackley recruits caregivers from early childhood and pediatric training programs, organizations of retired professionals, adults re-entering the workforce, and military spouse services — "building an inclusive team calls for creativity," she says — then layers on inclusivity training and continuing education. Within two years, she hopes to launch a nonprofit branch with its own manager, expanding access for low-income families and improving services for Deaf parents, children, and sitters.
Building that inclusion starts with the owner's own education, not the staff's or the clients'. She's reworked the gender-neutral language across her website and forms so single parents, grandparents raising kids, and transgender and non-binary families know "we thought of them before they arrived." And she's learned to say no, even when it's painful. She's had a customer ask for a different sitter because their assigned sitter's skin was "too black," let a client go for asking not to be matched with gay sitters, and fielded a parent's request for team photos to judge whether they "looked biologically female" — the request that moved her to add the Progress Pride flag to her website in 2022. The most common discrimination she encounters, though, is ageism. "Couldn't be farther from the truth," she says; the intergenerational connections children gain are a gift.
Creating Confidence for Families
Before launching Babysitters of Boulder, Hackley spent a good year on one question: how she would trust someone who wasn't her to care for a family's children. The protocol she built, drawing on her background in quality assurance and HR, is rigorous and deliberately joyful at once. Babysitters of Boulder is state-registered and insured; every candidate is interviewed face-to-face with two references contacted and an in-person CPR certification renewed every two years. Background and driving checks go to the county level across a candidate's entire history, not just where they live now. "I want that peace of mind that we looked everywhere," she says.
Above all comes water. At a swim lesson, caregivers watch the child 100 percent of the time, even with an instructor in the pool — no book, no Instagram, no stepping away. "I don't care if there are three lifeguards right there," she says. "We are that child's lifeguard." It's the same standard she holds the business to, utilizing professional HR tools, and formal written policies authored by Colorado contract and employment attorneys. As for what makes a great sitter beyond a résumé: someone genuinely interested in people, open to different parenting styles, and confident in communicating questions and concens. "Professionalism isn't granted by a job title or a degree. It's demonstrated through your accountability and your integrity." Most of her team members bring ten years of experience or more.
Less Guesswork, More Modern Convenience (and a Little Bad Bunny Energy)
For all the rigor behind the scenes, Hackley has worked hard to make the experience feel effortless for families. Parents can register, book, and manage memberships through an app, while a local phone line is staffed seven days a week from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m.—a modern system paired, intentionally, with a real person who still answers the phone. But for Hackley, Babysitters of Boulder has always been about more than childcare logistics. Over the years, she's watched too many parents—especially mothers—run themselves ragged before finally giving themselves permission to take a break.
"I envision a world where moms meeting up in sustained community isn't a once-in-a-blue-moon feat," she says. "It's our norm."
When people tell her they can find a sitter for free through a Facebook group, she offers a different perspective. "Facebook isn't free," she says. "It costs your time and your energy." At the heart of her work is a belief that parents, and particularly women, should value their time just as much as everyone else's. "We aren't meant to take care of everybody around us except ourselves. Society tells women that, but it's not true." Looking ahead, Hackley dreams of expanding the impact of Babysitters of Boulder beyond childcare. She lights up when talking about a future nonprofit arm, community initiatives, and perhaps even a physical space designed to support both families and caregivers. She even has a name for the vision.
"People talk about having 'F-you money,'" she says with a laugh. "I want 'Help-you money.'"
It's a philosophy rooted in community, generosity, and using success to create opportunities for others. In many ways, it reflects the same mission that inspired Babysitters of Boulder from the beginning: making life a little easier, a little safer, and a little more connected for the families who call Boulder County home.
To find your next trusted sitter, visit Babysitters of Boulder below or download the app here.
All photos taken by Masha of Paper Crane Photography.
