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Baby-sitting is a common first job. In this role, teens are responsible for their own
safety as well as the safety of other children. Before you allow your child to
become a baby sitter, make sure he or she has the skills, maturity and personality
required to care for young children. The following tips will help ensure your teen
has successful baby-sitting experiences:
- Teach your teen that baby-sitting is a job with important responsibilities.
Encourage your child to act in a businesslike way by being on time, dressing
appropriately, canceling only for emergencies, charging reasonable fees and
keeping you informed about job commitments. Talk with your teenager about
how he or she would respond to different situations. For example, “What would
you do if one of the children refuses to listen? What would you do if one of the
children was hurt?”
 Introduce your child to baby-sitting responsibilities a little at a time.
For example, a first job might
be playing with a preschooler
for a short period of time
while the parent is home
but busy around the house.
When your child is ready to
baby-sit a child alone, be
sure the first job will not be
much longer than an hour
and there is only one child
to watch.- Be sure your child can
handle each request. There
is a real chance for tragedy
whenever a sitter takes on
more than he or she can
control safely. Make sure you
know how many children
your child will be responsible
for and their ages. Find out if
any of the children have
special needs or if your teen
will have additional
responsibilities, such as
caring for pets.
- Take time to discuss each baby-sitting job with your child. This should be done
just after completing the job, before problems can be forgotten. If your child
has had a bad experience, you may not want to allow another job with that
family. If your child reports the job was a success, offer your praise.
- Establish a way to help your teen in unsafe situations. If your son or daughter
has difficulties, will he or she be able to reach you for advice or guidance? If
your teen can’t reach you, who else (a trusted neighbor, a family friend or
another relative) can he or she call for advice?
- Do not let your child baby-sit for strangers. In addition, do not let your teen
recruit baby-sitting jobs by putting fliers or posters in public places or on the
Internet. Instead, use word-of-mouth advertising to family friends, relatives or
your coworkers.
- Be sure the information you need to contact your child is written down before
your child leaves for the baby-sitting job. This includes name, address and
phone number of the family your child will be baby-sitting for as well as the
time the family plans to return home.
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