• Pinch Sitters

  212-260-6005, pinchsitters@yahoo.com

  Your nanny’s a no-show, your boss invited you to dinner, and your spouse is stuck at work. Pinch Sitters provides reliable baby-sitters, mostly in their twenties or thirties, in Manhattan, Brooklyn, and Queens at a moment’s notice. Started fifteen years ago by a Park Slope mom, the company is now owned by Lisa Magaro, a former customer. Magaro screens and interviews all the sitters personally; there are about 50 in rotation at any time. To line up a last-minute minder, call or e-mail at least two hours in advance. There’s a four-hour minimum, at $16 dollars an hour, plus cab fare after 9 p.m. “It’s not cheap,” says one fan, “but it’s worth it.”

From the 2003 Best of New York issue of New York Magazine