Choosing babysitter

Active Poster Joined: May 21 2006 Posts: 37

I will need to go back to work after the babya and I am owndering what to ask a babysitter, like what are the wuestions to ask her before I hire her. I know about what she charges I should ask, but what else too.

Gold Member Joined: May 04 2006 Posts: 1720

ask for refrences, how many years she has been doing this. if she has kids of her own, what her hours are. if she available to you when needed.

the best thing to do is to take your baby for a day or two and see how it goes, see if the diaper gets changed and if the baby seems happy and quite. also refrences are good, make sure she gives you numbers of people for whom she babyset not her friends.

getting a babysitter is tricky, its trial and error almost, you just have to see how it goes and make sure things are okay
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Diamond Member Joined: Dec 05 2005 Posts: 3505

ask how many kids she watches, what their ages are. if she has too many kids, she won't look at yours. if her kids are older or younger then yours he won't be able to play with them properly and an older kid could beat him up.
ask how many of her own kids she has adn if they'll be their when your kid is there.
how often will she cancel on you and do you have to pay for a day you don't send and if she doesn't do a day does she get a replacement or do you ahve to find s/o.
MOST IMPORTANT- tell her its a two week trial, you are not commited for the 1st two weeks so you see what its really like.
also drop in randomly once or twice during the day if possible.
one last thing- never be shy- if feel a concern or want s/t done in a particular manner- this is your baby and you have every right to reqst whatever you want- that is why you're paying her.
and I wish I didn't learn the above the hard way.

good luck.

Posted: Sun, Jun 04 2006, 5:43 am Post subject: re: choosing babysitter

I babysit for parnosa and pleasure. I actually LOVE my job! I can tell you one thing, I appreciate an educated consumer! I gladly give references. meaning current and past customers. I gladly allow mommies to remain with their babies for as long as they feel they need to. I gladly take mommies' phone calls during hours so that they can check in on how their babies are doing. I absolutely give honest reports; I always tell mothers how much if at all their babies cried, played, ate, napped. I do not say the baby is happy when it is not. And when other areas of my life impact negatively on my babysitting service, I do take a day or two off! The mothers are mad at me for taking off, but I do it so that I can recenter myself and be the good babysitter I'm known to be. (Sorry I can't tell you my reason for taking off, trust me your child benefits.)

Amother, because otherwise you'll know why I just took a day off, and you all think I have it all together....