How to Find The Perfect Teen Aged Babysitter

Baby Sitters

My husband and I host a weekly meeting at our church and I needed to find some reliable babysitters for our group. Here is how I did it.

Things You'll Need

• A list of local churches
• A local Youth Center or YMCA

Instructions

1. Know your age group. If you have pre schoolers or grade schoolers figure on an average ratio of 1 teen to every 3 children. Armed with this you may now begin your search.

2. Call 2 or 3 churches and tell the church secretary that you are looking for reliable teens that might be interested in baby sitting. Ask her if she knows of any youth in the church that might fit this bill.

   Also call your local youth center or YMCA and ask the same question.

3. Armed with a list of names it is time to come up with some interview questions. Some examples would be:
   1. How long have you worked with children? 2. What do you want to be when you grow up? 3. Do you do any baby sitting for anyone else? 4. What are some of your hobbies? 5. Would you be willing to commit to two Saturday's per month to baby sit? 6. Are you CPR certified or do you have some safety training? Do you like kids?

   Obviously the list of questions is endless but you get the general idea. Create some key questions and get to know the teen during the interview. Sometimes the parents will want to be there during the interview. That is encouraged and okay also.

4. After interviewing several teens it is time to have a trial run. Choose your favorite 3 teens and tell them that you are going to give them a trial run. Have them come in for the next meeting and watch the children. If you have several children you could set it up for 2 of them to work together.

   During the meeting it is a good idea to slip out once or twice and quietly check in on the kids and sitters and observe how they are doing.

5. After the meeting ask the teens how they liked the job.
   How do you think the kids liked them? Did the kids seem happy? Were there toys all over as if the kids had fun or were the kids looking bored?

   After testing out 2 or 3 sitters (or sets of sitters) you should know well who you feel the most comfortable with.

   You may find that all of them did an exceptionally well job in which case you can always rotate them so that they don't have to work more than once or twice per month on a weekly basis.

Tips & Warnings

• Always be sure to meet the teens parents and let them know what you expect from their teen.

• It is always good to be able to observe the sitters with kids periodically. As teens mature they often get more interested in other things and become less interested in babysitting.

• Be open and upfront about your expectations. Do you expect toys to be picked up afterwards or will you be doing that part?

• Be timely in paying them. They are doing

• a service for you and for some this could be their first venture into the real job world.

• If you observe the teen yelling or threatening or severely punishing any of the children put a stop to it immediately. This is not the sitter for your group. Let them know why you are eliminating them from the pool of sitters and realize that sitting is not for every teen.

• If you have a specifically challenging child in the group be sure to let the sitter know and tell the sitter some "tricks" to keep that child behaving. Sometimes a little creativity will go a long way.