Babysitting & Date Nights in Live Oak Preserve, New Tampa (Tampa, FL)

Live Oak Preserve in New Tampa (Tampa, FL 33647): A 1,300-acre gated community of 16 villages on Bruce B. Downs Blvd across from Wharton High in New Tampa, in unincorporated Hillsborough County with a Tampa mailing address, run by a master HOA and two county-created CDDs, with a clubhouse, pool and courts at 9401 Oak Preserve Blvd. Built from 2002, Live Oak has original owners who stayed and families who bought resales, so the same street can need a sitter and a companion visit. We live a few streets over in Cross Creek, on the same side of the county line.

Babysitting is in your home, for one family at a time, following your routine: dinner, homework, bath, the bedtime you set, and a tidy kitchen when you get back. We never do drop-off or group care and we never bring children to our house, and that is what keeps a babysitter outside Florida's child-care licensing rules. Live Oak is zoned for Turner/Bartels K-8, Turner/Bartels K-8, Wharton High in Hillsborough County Public Schools.

Live Oak Preserve is a private gated community; the HOA's resident sheet lists Envera gate security and a guard-house phone, with resident gate access cards and stickers. The HOA does not publish a visitor procedure, so tell the gate to expect us before the first visit and we confirm the arrangement at the free meet and greet. The amenity center is resident-fob restricted, so if you want us at the pool or clubhouse with your kids or your dog, we need your fob. We do not take children to a pool without your written permission and your fob. In the rainy season the storms come through between 3 and 6 in the afternoon, so afternoon visits are timed around them. Date nights run $24/hr with a 2-hour minimum, $3/hr per additional child from the same family, and an overnight is $165/night.