Babysitter Basics : Leaving Your Child in Good Hands

Every parent deserves a little time away from their child or children. It doesn’t matter how much you love them, you need some time for yourself to remind yourself of who you are. You also need time with your partner, this helps to maintain and nurture the bond between a couple.

Of course, the first time you leave your child you’re going to feel guilty. But, if you leave your child in good hands, you’ll quickly realize it’s actually beneficial for you, which makes it beneficial for your children.

The key to achieving this successfully is in finding good babysitting services, which isn’t as difficult as you may think.

You simply need to define what qualifies someone as a good babysitter and make sure that any potential candidate has the necessary experience and qualifications.

Experience

You can get your friend’s child to babysit for you as long as they are old enough. However, you need to be sure that they have experience dealing with children the same age as yours. This is important as they need to know what to do if something goes wrong.

Knowing that they have experience means you can enjoy your time away from the children.

Qualifications

A babysitter doesn’t need to be qualified, but that doesn’t mean you can’t ask if they have any qualifications in childcare. Whether this is instrumental in your decision-making process is up to you, but it is definitely worth considering.

Meet The Sitter

You want to feel comfortable that you’ve chosen the right babysitter. The best way to do this is to invite them over several times before you leave them alone with your children. This will give you the opportunity to get to know them better and to see how they interact with your children.

If you have the time it’s a good idea to do a short trial run before your real babysitting event.

Charges

A babysitter will charge a set fee per hour or per evening. It’s important to verify what this is before they start work and to confirm acceptable payment methods. You can then compare the rate to that of others, this ensures you’re paying a fair wage.

Talk To Friends

Friends are the best source for contact details of a babysitter. If they’ve used one before and are happy with the service then it’s a fairly safe bet to hire the same one. This will help you to have confidence in the babysitter you select.

However, don’t forget to think about how often you go out with these friends, you’re not going to be able to share a babysitter on those nights.

Emergency Info

Don’t forget to provide your babysitter with all the emergency contact information, allowing them to contact you or someone else if there is an issue. This gives them peace of mind as well as you.

Go With Your Gut

Finally, this is one occasion when it’s good to go with your gut. If you think they’ll do a good job babysitting then they probably will.