What is a good way to find a babysitter?

Question

We really need to get out of the house more but are terrified of leaving our young kids with a stranger. How do you find a babysitter you can trust? Family is not an option, I have already asked around our church an our neighborhood and most of my mom friends to far away to share resources.

When you find a sitter how to you get to know them. I'd to see how they interact with the kids, get to know the house and routine before leaving them alone. Do you pay them for this? How much?

Sorry about the horrible spelling and grammer. I must be really tired.

Answer 1

Go to babysitters.com or sittercity.com just make sure that you interview the person and make them spend some time with the children while you are still in the house as a "practice" to see how well they click with your children.

Answer 2

I am 14 years old and I babysit every weekend. I get jobs through word-of-mouth, or from my school. Look into your local highschool, I bet the guidance counselors can help you find a student who likes to babysit and is responsible. When I was little, my mom put an add in th paper. The lady cae over and my mom interviewed her, and then had her babysit us a few times when she was still home. She ended up being a great babysitter. Ask around, You may be surprised how many people have reliable babysitters that would be more then willing to work for you. I live in a pretty wealthy town, so I make 9-11 per hour. One lady has 4 kids so I make 15 an hour. IF you still dont know what to pay, ask the sitter what he/she usually makes. FYI-dont go lower than 8 or higher than 15.

Hope this helps!


ALSO-MAKE SURE YOUR BABYSITTER KNOWS ALL CONTACT INFORMATION AND WHERE THINGS ARE AROUND THE HOUSE. SPARE KEYS, MEDICINE, FIRE EXTINGUISHER, BOILER, FIRST AID, EVERYTHING!

Answer 3

Kids in the neighborhood can make good babysitters. Make sure you get references and have the children spend time with the sitter beforehand to see if you can trust them. Leave information on where things are and where you will be and an approximate time on when you'll be back. Don't let them invite friends over. Tell them not to answer the door for anyone.

Answer 4

Is there no one at your church or neighborhood that can watch them? Try starting a swap program with them as well. Say I'll watch your children when you need, and vice versa. If you go with a stranger I do not see a reason to pay them to come over beforehand to interact with your children. These days it is very common..

Answer 5

Day care providers are a great resource for evening and weekend baby sitters. Call local daycares and leave your info. You can interview those who respond.

Answer 6

I would personally aviod baby-sitters at all costs.

There are a lot of wierdo's out there that probably select that job as a means to go around doing dirty things.

That would I think from being to the places that I have been.

Answer 7

check with your local high school. they often had kids in
need of babysitting. you should pay them for the time they
spend at your house getting to know everything. also you
should get refrences from other parents before you even consider
meeting with this person. whatever the going rate per hour
should be sufficient.

Answer 8

Here's how I would do it (I'm a father, I know a little bit about these things):

Visit your state's sex offender web site, print 16 of the worst looking photos you can find.

Put them on your wall in plain sight.

On another wall, hang a big rifle with a scope and hopefully several boxes of bullets in plain sight.

Conduct your interviews in that room.

(For added affect, put a big red "X" through several of the photos with a red sharpie pen.)