In the near future I am giving a presentation entitled “How to Interview Anybody for Anything”. Here is some information I’ve put together about hiring a babysitter. For us I consider a babysitter anyone who watches our children about once a week on an ad-hoc basis. Anything more I really consider a nanny. I’ll write about nannies in a future post, as there are specific things that apply just to nannies like taxes and contracts.
First you have to find potential babysitters. Here are some ways we’ve found babysitters in the past.
- Post fliers at local colleges and universities.
- Check enannysource.com or sittercity.com (small fee applies for each site, but they do background checks for you). Sitter City was recently featured on the Today Show and in Time Magazine… check it out.
- Ask local schools, parents, friends, relatives, neighbors, your church, lifeguards at your pool, those who work in childcare at your health club… anyone you trust… ask if they are willing, or ask for a recommendation.
- A Nanny Agency (expensive!! But they do a complete and thorough background check.).
Before we talk to potential babysitters, we decide the following:
- The minimum level experience that is acceptable to us, and what we are willing to pay for each level of experience. For example, are you okay with a high school teen for $6-10/hour? Or do you want a college student, not necessarily pursuing a career in anything related to children for around $10/hour? Or do you want a young adult with their Masters in Education or equivalent experience for $14+/hour? I’ve hired people in each of these categories, and those are the going rates in our neighborhood.
- Our “house rules” for the babysitter. For example, our house rules include (1) no driving the kids anywhere in the car as there is no need for this in our neighborhood, (2) no television on while the kids are awake, (3) no personal cell phone calls – so many nannies in our neighborhood sit around and talk on their cell phone when they are at the playground or whatever, and that really bugs me, (4) the kids must wear sunscreen and hats when outside.
Next we meet with the babysitter and ask the following questions:
- Name:
- Phone:
- Address:
- Citizenship status:
- Age:
- Do you have children of your own? How old?
- What other childcare experience do you have?
- What do you like to do with children at these ages (your children’s ages)?
- Do you still baby sit for your prior clients?
- What are the ages of other children you have watched?
- What do you like about babysitting and being around children?
- What do you do in your spare time? Any hobbies, other jobs?
- If the sitter is under 18, do your parents support your babysitting jobs?
- Tell me about your school life. Sports? Activities? Grades? Do you like school?
- What kind of activities do you enjoy doing with children?
- Do you know CPR or other emergency procedures?
- What days and times are you available?
- Would you be comfortable getting acclimated to our family by babysitting a few times while we are at home?
- How much do you charge? Do you prefer cash or a check? (I negotiated a lot in my career, but I really don’t like negotiating with babysitters. Since they are watching my children, I always pay them at least what they ask, or I don’t hire them. It is important to me that they feel valued.)
- Can you provide me with a couple of references from former or current babysitting clients?
- Are you okay with our house rules (recite your house rules)?
- Is there anything I should know about your background?
- Do you have any questions for me?
- Do you think you would like to babysit here?
It is at this point that you really have to go with your gut. We have been through this process almost 10 times, and every time I had even a minor reservation about someone, I ended up not liking them in the long run. The babysitters who I had great gut feelings about initially (literally within the first 30 seconds of meeting them), I ended up liking the best. Look for the following as you are interviewing your babysitter.
- Does she seem relaxed and comfortable with you and with herself? And your children if they are meeting at this point?
- Does she smile and make good eye contact.
- Does she seem naturally friendly and fun (not fake or forced) with good energy… someone who your kids would enjoy?
- Does she seem interested in what you are saying?
- Does she appear to have her act together? Does it seem like the type of person that makes good decisions and thinks on her feet?
- Does she seem genuinely enthusiastic about the babysitting opportunity? Or is she just in it for the money?
And finally, before actually hiring a babysitter, check her background:
- Obtain work and personal references from the babysitter and verify them.
- Decide if you want to do a formal background check (I do). If you do, get written permission from the potential babysitter to perform one (required by law). You will need to obtain her current and previous address, her birth date and her social security number. A background check can be as simple as a criminal record search or it can be a full blown investigation of him. You should only search relevant information, as privacy laws vary from state to state. Typical investigations include a criminal background check, a social security number check and a driving record check. We have used ussearch.com in the past to perform background checks. We are interested in seeing everything from felonies to petty crimes to identity issues.
- I always Google potential babysitters to see what I can find out about them myself. I usually find their myspace or facebook page and/or their photobooks. I have seen some pretty interesting things doing this… people should be careful about what they put on the internet… it is public domain after all.
