Are you looking to hire a babysitter? If so, choosing a babysitter can seem challenging and overwhelming. You want to make sure they are good with kids and have the right qualifications.
You want to feel confident leaving your little ones in the care of this babysitter. To help you prepare for hiring your babysitter, we’ve compiled this list of questions and other tips on how to hire a babysitter. Keep reading so you can find the right person to care for your children.
Where To Look For a Babysitter
To find a babysitter, you can start by asking friends, neighbors, or co-workers. They may have a sitter they use often. You can also check out numerous online sites, like this site, that help match you with the right sitter.
If your child goes to daycare, you can ask them for recommendations. Also, reach out to teens you already know.
Start With Common Questions
When you find a potential babysitter, you want to get a sense of their experience. If you don’t know the person well, you may want to start by asking why they like working with children. Then you can get into the more straightforward questions.
Here are some common questions to ask a babysitter about their experience:
- How long have you been babysitting
- Tell me about your experience with children in my child’s age range
- Do you have experience watching more than one child at a time
- How flexible is your schedule
- Are you willing to help with any household tasks like cleaning up, meal prep, etc.
- Do you have any possible scheduling conflicts like sports, other jobs, etc.
- Are you comfortable helping with homework
- What is your hourly rate
- Are you comfortable with transporting and using car seats
Then you can get into some more of the open-ended questions.
Ask Open-Ended Questions
After you find out the answers to some of these questions above, now you can get some more detailed information about the babysitter’s skills and experience. This will help you also start to see more of their personality.
Here are some examples of more detailed questions:
- What is your favorite thing about babysitting
- What do you look for when choosing a family to babysit for
- What was your worst babysitting experience and why
- How do you handle discipline
- Do you have any activities planned for children
- Have you ever had to handle an emergency while babysitting and what did you do
- Are you trained in safety procedures like CPR
You want to see how the potential sitter acts in certain situations. If you have any situations unique to your family, you should talk about them (such as food allergies or any other health issues).
Things to Watch While You Interview
In addition to the interview answers, you also want to get an overall feel for the babysitter and read body language during the interview. You want to make sure they show up on time for the interview. You also want to listen to see if the potential babysitter speaks badly about past clients.
Does the person seem enthusiastic? You may want to introduce them to your children and see how they interact. Make sure they are willing to perform the functions of the job.
You want your children to like this person and look up their babysitter. Your children should be excited when they hear their babysitter is coming because this is a sign you found a great babysitter.
Hire a Babysitter With Confidence
There are many reasons to hire a babysitter like date nights, after-school care, or to help out while you work. Whatever the reason, you want to feel confident in your hire. Use these questions as you get to know your potential babysitter.
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