5 Tips for Choosing a School-Year Babysitter

During the school year, childcare can be essential for keeping your family running well. Hiring a regular babysitter throughout the school-year can help make sure your kids have a constant, stable presence in their lives. From school pick-ups to helping with homework, and more, a regular school-year babysitter can be a lifesaver.

What should you look for in your regular school-year babysitter?

Here Are 5 Tips for Finding a Great Babysitter:

1. Practical Concerns:

If you need help driving your kids here and there, will your babysitter be able to drive your car or their own car? Find out if your potential babysitter has a driver’s license and a good driving record.

Another practical concern is scheduling. You’ll want to find out when your potential sitter is available so that you can make sure your schedules are compatible.

2. Educational Background:

Check out your potential babysitter’s educational background. Bonus points for courses in child development and psychology! However, education in any field may be relevant, especially if you’ll want the babysitter to help take care of homework duty. For example, if your child struggles with math and your babysitter has a minor in physics, chances are your babysitter will be able to help your kid out with their math homework.

During the interview process, you should also ask your babysitter about how they approach homework. While your babysitter should help your child get it done, they shouldn’t do the homework for the child either.

3. References:

Call up your babysitter’s references. Ideally, your babysitter will have had previous experience as a sitter or in a childcare setting. These sorts of references will be the most telling as to what you can expect from your potential childcare provider.

When you call references, ask questions like:
–       Tell me about a time when something went wrong. How did the individual react?
–       What are the individual’s positive qualities?
–       How did the individual handle discipline?

These sorts of questions can provide you with a window into how the potential sitter acts in real childcare situations.

4. Personality:

Ultimately, your babysitter and children’s personalities must mesh. You can do a paid trial run to see how your children and the potential babysitter get along. This is especially important if your child has a strong personality or is particularly anxious about new people. During the trial run, you might spend a bit of your time all together so that you can get a sense of how the babysitter engages and plays with your kids.

5. Communication:

Ask your babysitter for suggestions on maintaining good communication. While as the employer, it’s your job to set up a good precedent for communication, a proactive babysitter will suggest and implement good communication strategies. For example, you might use texts or WhatsApp for general communication. Also, you might ask if your sitter is open to a weekly 15-minute meeting to catch up. Your potential babysitter should value regular, transparent communication.

With these factors in mind, you can wade through resumes and potential babysitters to find your perfect match! Once you do, you’ll be glad you spent some time thinking about what’s important in a school-year babysitter for your family. With their help, your family life can run smoothly and happily.

Ready to hire your family’s regular babysitter? Contact Certified Nannies of America today!