Many parents think that anyone can become an effective babysitter. Many people take care of their younger siblings or cousins, but choosing the wrong sitter can lead to dangerous consequences.
Finding A Good Babysitter
There are several ways to ensure that you find the right babysitter for your family.
1. Use a babysitting agency
Babysitting agencies or websites like https://sosgarde.ca/ provide you with a list of references and check the backgrounds of babysitters before matching them to families.
If you want to find a babysitter, these agencies can set up interviews for you and schedule meetings between the hiring parents and sitters, leaving less room for miscommunication or different expectations. This makes it easier because you don’t have to deal with the technicalities.
2. Background checks
Background checks are an important step in hiring a babysitter. Perform thorough research to determine the possible risks you might be exposed to when hiring your child’s babysitter.
If you’re not sure about which information to look for, ask around for potential references or use online resources such as Google and Facebook. While performing background checks, remember that this person will stay with your child alone, so it is crucial to be 100% sure about their past behavior.
3. Interview them properly
When interviewing, check if they have previous experience babysitting younger kids (if applicable). It is also helpful if they can tell you how they would handle certain situations like having another toddler burst into tears during nap time or if they see a stranger walking towards your house. Lastly, if they are comfortable with pets or not can also be helpful to know.
4. Ask some trick questions
It is crucial that you ask them some trick questions in order to find out more about their personality and how they would handle emergencies. Questions like “What would you do if a robber came into my house” or “If you see my child choking, what should you do?” will help you understand the person better and make you feel more at ease when hiring them as a babysitter for your child(ren).
This way, even if something does happen, we’ll know we’ve made the right choice by hiring this person as our babysitter.
5. You get what you pay for, so don’t be afraid to spend extra
The cheapest option for a babysitter is not always the best one. If a babysitter charges very low prices, it might be due to a lack of experience or qualifications as they attempt to improve their resume with as many jobs as possible.
It’s better if parents invest in a bit more expensive sitter since they will know that the person is equipped with qualifications and experience. Investing a bit more will lead to less stress and worries when you leave your child somewhere, knowing that they are in good hands.
6. Trust your gut feeling
If you feel like something is wrong with the person who came over for an interview, you’re probably right. Trust your instincts and don’t hire them; it’s better to be safe than sorry when it comes to the safety of your children (and pets).
It might also happen that you like them very much, but there is just something about them that isn’t clear — again — don’t hire them. Don’t forget: if they make us uncomfortable, or we fear we can’t trust them 100%, we most likely cannot leave our child(ren) with him/her alone.
Why is choosing the right babysitter important?
Many parents assume that bad things don’t happen to good people. However, the FBI reported over 2 million cases of child abuse in 2010 alone. There are countless stories on the news or on social media about horrible accidents occurring when children were either left unattended with a babysitter or had them for long periods of time while their parents went out for dinner or movies.
When this happens, it is important that we know exactly who has been taking care of our kids so that we can place the blame where it belongs if something does happen to our child(ren).
What are some qualities of a good babysitter?
A good babysitter will never leave the child(ren) unattended, keep them away from harmful objects (like knives or chemicals), feed them healthy food and not too much junk food (and monitor their sugar intake), take time to play with them even if they are busy doing other things around the house.
Know first aid in case of an emergency, have a backup plan for emergencies, communicate clearly any changes in plans to parents so that the child knows what is happening.
There are so many things to consider when hiring someone to take care of our children while we’re not around, it’s hard to decide what’s more important than the other.
However, if you know how to choose the right person for the job and ask all the necessary questions at an interview, chances are you will find just the one for you.