Do you really know your prospective sitter?
This should be one of the first questions that you ask yourself. In case you have hired one through personal referrals, you must be especially careful. Do make it a point to ask the sitter for her complete address and her full name. You may want to visit the sitter once in order to test the authenticity of the information that she provides to you.
Does your sitter have experience?
Professional referral agencies ensure that the sitters they send to your place are experienced and reliable. Usually, these sitters may even have some certificate attesting them to be qualified professionals when it comes to babysitting. While hiring a sitter on your own, inquire about the experience she has had.
You can always ask the sitter to jot down references so that you can confirm the actual numbers of years she has worked with children. Do make it a point to ask her about the ages of the children she has mostly watched. This is a very important bit of information since children of different age groups have different needs.
It would be best to ask your sitter whether she is comfortable when it comes to taking care of kids of different age groups. If you have a newborn, then it is absolutely vital for her to be comfortable when it comes to taking care of infants.
Is your sitter reliable?
You must know whether your sitter is indeed a person worth your trust. Do make it a point to talk to her about her personal goals and her background. The idea is to get estimation about the sort of a person she is. You must be very observant and careful while conducting a personal interview with her. Ask her questions on her life and about the work, she has done in the past.
It is important that you speak to her previous employers; they will be in a better position to give you better information about the sitter.
Does your sitter smoke or drink?
If you are a smoker, you may not find this question especially relevant or important. Being a responsible parent, you must have some idea about your sitter’s habits. If the babysitter smokes in front of your kids, she is clearly a bad influence! Children are highly impressionable; smoking in a child’s presence may prompt the child to try it too.
You would not want to come home to see your child trying his or her hand at smoking! Secondly, the ills of passive smoking have often raised ill will amongst the non-smoking population. So hiring a sitter who smokes is probably not a very good idea!
If your child suffers from asthma or allergies then he/she is especially vulnerable to respiratory ailments. If this is the case, then directly ask the sitter to never smoke in front of your kids.
Also having a simple glass of beer may seem an innocent activity for adults, but when your babysitter boozes in front of your kids, it is anything but innocent! Moreover, if the sitter drinks on her job, then she might neglect your children, or worse, even turn hostile towards them.
In case of emergencies, such as fire, break-ins or medical emergencies, if your sitter is drunk then she might not be in a stable state of mind to take decisions and assist your children in escaping from harm.
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