Friday, April 27, 2012

Choosing The Ideal Babysitter


If you need to go to work everyday and so does your spouse, you may need to make the best arrangements for caring for your kids. Who will it be? If you are fortunate enough to have family around, then you win! For the rest of the world, you will need to have a nanny or babysitter around to keep things running smoothly.

So how does one choose the ideal babysitter? This is a complex process that should never be taken lightly. Think about the person are searching for and what they will be responsible for...your children! There is nothing more important to you than your kids and picking the best person is going to be imperative in these cases.

Tips To Choosing an Ideal Babysitter:

1~ Always interview your candidates. Have them come to your home and interact with not only you and your spouse, but your children also. If you have pets you will need them to meet those animals to ensure they will comfortable with caring for them while you are not home as well. Children can sense things sometimes better than adults can. If you notice your child is simply not impressed with this potential nanny, then you may have to keep looking until you find a great person to have in their lives.

2~Check your babysitter out. Do yourself a favor and put some of that maternal worrying aside to really dig deep into the person's life that will be in your home taking your place when you are not there. Anyone can run a background check on someone thanks to the internet and you may find the smallest of details on them that makes you want to choose another candidate. You can also check certain websites to ensure you are not going to have someone with a record of harming children in your home also by searching under your local county.

3~ Pay rates and extras. While you may have come up with a set price that you can afford each week for a nanny, be clear on what it is you will be requiring them to do. If they need to prepare meals, care for kids and pets, and even do some driving around with your little ones be sure to give them what they deserve. Paying a bit extra for care in the home can provide you with a great caregiver versus a high school kid from the neighborhood.

4~Make a play date. This is a great way to see if you have found an ideal match or not. Have an afternoon off that you can run around with some errands and leave the babysitter candidate with your kids for maybe two hours. Check back with them and see how their time spent went, you will know instantly if your children enjoy this person and they will know if they can handle your kids to go any further.

4 comments:

  1. Very good recommendations for choosing a sitter. You are correct it is a extremely important decision and therefore it is necessary to be so thorough.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Background checks are good, but sometimes that doesn't help too much for a teenager that might not have a record yet...

    Best bet is if you're hiring a teen girl, make sure you know their parents very well. That's the only way I will.

    ReplyDelete
  3. I know I am too protective, but especially in my country there are too many chances for bad things to happen. I would only let my mother or some other close relative keep after my son.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Fortunately since my husband is in the military I'm able to stay at home with our daughter for right now.
    However, I've been longing for a date night, and I need to look into finding a reliable babysitter for those rare occasions.
    Thank you for the suggestions, I especially like the "make a play date" idea.

    ReplyDelete