Business senior Lucy Gold founded Gold Student Sitters in October 2025. The network bridges the gap between University of Michigan students seeking babysitting jobs and Ann Arbor families searching for child care by providing a platform for students to advertise their services and families to hire them. The service started with 20 registered sitters and has since grown to 70.
In an interview with The Michigan Daily, Gold said she hoped to facilitate connections between families and students who didn’t have a way to easily find each other.
“I babysat a lot in high school, and when I got to (the University of) Michigan, that was my main source of income,” Gold said. “I didn’t know how to continue it, and the same was for a lot of my friends. We didn’t want to just put our faces on Facebook, and there’s a lot of families who want to tap into U-M students but don’t know how to do it, so I’m like the matchmaker.”
Brynn Krause, an Ann Arbor parent who has been using the platform since its launch, told The Daily that Gold Student Sitters provided an efficient pathway for local families and U-M students to connect.
“From my experience in the past, there hasn’t been an avenue to connect all the students that live in Ann Arbor and all the families that live in Ann Arbor besides word of mouth or the original method of Facebook messaging one individual person that’s looking for work,” Krauser said. “So this is kind of a no-brainer — to have a more formal way to connect students and families that are in need of something similar.”
The service only allows U-M students to advertise their services on the site, and those seeking to do so must upload a photo of their Mcard in their application. Krause said she was drawn to the service, which gives her a sense of comfort and ability to trust sitters on the platform.
“Knowing that these individuals are driven, responsible, self-sufficient enough to get into the University of Michigan to be current students and also be seeking employment, that was a huge factor in and of itself for me,” Krause said. “I know that they’re going to be honest, trustworthy, reliable individuals.”
Public Policy senior Emma Macaluso, executive board member of Gold Student Sitters, told The Daily the element of hiring solely U-M students sets the business apart from other babysitting agencies in the area.
“A big thing of the brand is, we are University of Michigan students, and that repertoire in the Ann Arbor community is something that the parents really want,” Macaluso said. “I think the amount of sitters (Gold) has found and added on to the business gives so much more options to parents.”
Families seeking child care can fill out a form to specify their job descriptions and preferences for a sitter, such as their desired babysitting frequency and hours. The service then finds suitable sitters for the family based on their answers. Krause said when she initially contacted the business, its promptness and professionalism stood out to her.
“Not only did (Gold) present herself well, but I would say that the individual babysitters working under her company represented themselves really well — how quickly they got in touch with me and were available to work right away,” Krause said. “That’s pretty priceless for someone that needs help — my husband and I both work; we needed somebody relatively soon, so that was a great asset.”
In an interview with The Daily, Kinesiology senior Jack Tirsch, an executive board member of Gold Student Sitters, said the business’s team aims to expand the number of families and sitters on the platform.
“We’re constantly trying to grow our social media following and make sure that we’re reaching as many parents as possible,” Tirsch said. “We’re trying to connect with as many current clients as we can. A goal to build on that is to connect with prospective sitters on different campuses, different regions nearby and to continue growing our client base.”
Gold said her biggest goal is to foster connections between families and sitters that go beyond a single booking and develop into lasting, trusting relationships.
“I want this to be something that relieves stress on both ends, both for families, because they want to find quality care from students, who feel that they need a part-time job,” Gold said. “These connections are so wonderful and something I’ve benefited so greatly from. I want that to continue on — that people are gaining and creating more than just a one-off gig type of thing.”
Daily Staff Reporter Grace Park can be reached at gracepm@umich.edu.
