Finding a new teenage babysitter

Most people look to family and friends when they need a babysitter for their children. But around the holidays babysitters can get booked up quickly, and parents are often forced to find a new sitter so they attend holiday functions.

I am a local journalist working on a story on finding a good babysitter and would like to know the process you went through when you had to find a new sitter: Where you looked, if you checked references, did a "trial run," discussed rules and routines, pay, etc.

Although there are alot of nannies out there, I'd like to focus on finding a teen sitter since the latter sometimes lack age and experience, and this can leave parents feeling a little apprehensive. Thoughts?

Thanks in advance. My deadline is fast approaching!

Never used a sitter when our kids were young there is not many people I would trust with my children

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We are former military, so we sometimes didn't have much of a choice, especially if we weren't stationed close to my family.

I only had one incident where it ended in complete disaster. My day care provider decided to take the summer off (her hubby worked with mine). So we asked our other neighbor if their daugher, 15, wouldn't mind babysitting. She seamed so mature, but this task was too much for her.

We had explained everything to her and felt really secure knowing that hubby worked 5 minutes away and her mother was right next door also.
One day maybe a week after we hired her my hubby calls me in the middle of the day from home! The babysitter had ended up watching TV and our little boy had locked himself into the bathroom - she didn't notice at all!!!
When she finally realized a couple of hours later that she hadn't seen or heard from him and searched the apartment she realized that he was behind the bathroom door and she didn't know how to unlock it from the other side. So she called hubby and he came home. That was the end of her babysitting duty. Our little one then ended up spending the summer with my family where I knew my mother would keep a good eye on him.

Other than that I have had lots of friends that would sit him for the night or he would use the programs available through the military.

When he was older and we lived in Japan a friend of mine had a teenage daugther that would watch him occassionally, but by then he was 9 years old and knew how to use the phone and we had neighbors and her parents that would check up on them frequently.

Personally I would never entrust a small child to a teenager unless she would babysit in her own home and mom would be right there to help in case of a crisis.

Hope this has helped you!

Hi--

Well, I used to have a really hard time finding a decent babysitter. Seemed like very few of the neighborhood teens wanted to babysit-- they were all too busy with after school activities, friends, etc. I tried putting ads at local colleges, but got scant responses. The college students I did hire were often mediocre: dressed inappropriately (wearing shorts and flip flops in the dead of winter-- very disappointing to me and my children who were expecting the sitter to actually go outside and play with them...), were more interested in chatting on their cell phones than chatting with my kids, etc. At this point, I'm using two different kinds of sitters. The first are daughters of friends who are just starting to babysit: while they are young (generally about 14 or so), they are very enthusiastic and take the job seriously (this is usually their first job). I hire them as an extra pair of hands when I'm home as well, or for when I need to run out for just an hour or so. The other place I find sitters is a wonderful online service called Care.com. The sitters there are often older than teenagers, as they have to be 18 or older to join the site. But the site is fantastic: really easy to use, full of great articles and advice, and they do free background checks. (I also carefully check references and interview all candidates in person.) It did feel strange at first to be finding sitters through the computer, but it works! And I honestly think the days are gone when you could just hire the teen down the street and know that they'd be (a) available and (b) a good quality sitter.

Best of luck with your article!

MargotMama

lolol
a 15yr old girl with her head stuck up her arse.. lol u dont say.. :-D

that is a shame though..
I sure he found lots of chemicals and soaps to keep himself busy

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@Zeke: Yep, and her mom made her sound sooooo responsible .