When I was in high school I did a lot of babysitting and I loved it.  I remember when I was 12 my mom signed me up for this babysitting course so I could learn all the basics of babysitting and first aid before I actually started taking care of any children, I was so excited.  Being able to babysit felt like such a huge milestone to me.  I like to think I was a good babysitter (and the families I babysat for always said I was).  I was very responsible.  I spent good, quality time with the kids playing, I always made sure they ate healthy snacks at snacktime and I was always really good at making sure the kids were in bed at their bedtime.  Since I was a good, responsible babysitter why can’t I believe that whoever I hire to babysit my daughter will also be that nice, responsible girl that I was.

I admit that Maya has not been left with a babysitter once (that’s right, not one time) in her entire 21 months of life.  Our families don’t live close by so she hasn’t even been babysat by family, which isn’t to say that things would be much different if they did live close by, other than maybe I would have let my mom watch her a few times.  I like being the one who always takes care of Maya and I don’t trust that anyone will do it exactly how I would or even how I want it done.

However, we have an event coming up in a little over a month that will require me to have a babysitter for the evening.  I am working on finding one right now.  I have a neighbor that has offered to watch Maya for us if we ever want to go out for the evening, so I’ll likely finally take her up on her offer so my husband will stop begging me to go to the movies with him!  I also have a college student coming by Friday morning for an interview and a meet and greet with Miss Maya.  I really like this girl from our email correspondence and I think she’ll be a good match.  It’ll be nice to have a couple of people handy to call upon should the husband and I decide a nice date night is in order.

When I started this process of finding a babysitter a couple of weeks ago I had no idea it was so complicated.  I wish I had some older friends, with older (teenage) children so I could just use them and not have to worry about it.  I don’t like the idea of having to trust my daughter to the care of a complete stranger.  I know once I hire someone and begin working with them I’ll feel much better about it, but it sure doesn’t feel good right now.

I’ve done a bunch of research on the questions to ask a potential new babysitter and have my list of questions handy for our interview on Friday.  Here is a general list of the questions I’ll be asking, in case you find yourself in need of a babysitter and don’t know what to ask either, feel free to use my questions.

  1. How long have you been babysitting and do you enjoy babysitting?
  2. How old have the children been that you’ve babysat and what age are you most comfortable with?
  3. Do you have references you can provide me, and what do you think your references will have to say about you?
  4. What sorts of activities do you like to do with the children you babysit, and what would you do with my daughter?
  5. Do you have any formal first aid training?
  6. Do you feel confident that you would know what to do in an emergency, explain what you would do?
  7. Are your comfortable with the fact that my daughter has a nut allergy and what to do if she should have a reaction?
  8. What hours are you comfortable working?
  9. What do expect to get paid for your services?
  10. What makes you a good babysitter for my daughter and why do you think we should hire you?

That is pretty much the basics of what I will discuss with her, of course, the conversation and questions will follow her answers and my general feeling about her.  Do you have any suggestions on questions I should ask, things I may have overlooked?

My biggest fear is that Maya won’t like whomever I decide to hire.  She is shy and doesn’t always take well to people.  I should be able to tell Friday during our interview if this girl is the type of person Maya will warm up to or not.  Keep your fingers crossed that things go well and our first adventure in babysitting is a success.

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