My new favorite source for babysitters (besides Facebook of course) is my kids school! They have a babysitters list of all the teachers who do weekends / date nights!
I also try to help develop the next generation of kid and housesitting talent! For tweens who are in sixth or seventh grade, that might not be ready for solo babysitting, I start to get them in the loop with watching our low maintenance pets (fish/cats) once a day while we’re out of town, or hanging out with the kid when I’m still at home. It’s always great to start building the bench and give the soon-to-be young adults an opportunity to grow their own practices and references!
These are great tips! We just had our two go-to sitters move away, so this is perfect timing. And a great reminder that I need to schedule a trial-type session now, before I really need it
I love all these tips. Especially your system for saving them in your phone! Genius.
I've really loved getting to know high school kids in our area who babysit. I babysat in high school, but I think they're less common, at least where I live. Partly because high schoolers are kept so busy (and I think a lot of their parents don't encourage them to work) but also because most of the parents I know look for adult babysitters as a default. But I love my kids developing relationships with slightly older kids! It creates a real sense of community. Plus, the high schoolers tend to be way more excited for things like talking Pokemon or building pillow forts. And as a bonus, they tend to charge less than adults!
My new favorite source for babysitters (besides Facebook of course) is my kids school! They have a babysitters list of all the teachers who do weekends / date nights!
I also try to help develop the next generation of kid and housesitting talent! For tweens who are in sixth or seventh grade, that might not be ready for solo babysitting, I start to get them in the loop with watching our low maintenance pets (fish/cats) once a day while we’re out of town, or hanging out with the kid when I’m still at home. It’s always great to start building the bench and give the soon-to-be young adults an opportunity to grow their own practices and references!
Love that! I could definitely use some of that "second set of hands" help sometimes when my husband is traveling!
These are great tips! We just had our two go-to sitters move away, so this is perfect timing. And a great reminder that I need to schedule a trial-type session now, before I really need it
I love all these tips. Especially your system for saving them in your phone! Genius.
I've really loved getting to know high school kids in our area who babysit. I babysat in high school, but I think they're less common, at least where I live. Partly because high schoolers are kept so busy (and I think a lot of their parents don't encourage them to work) but also because most of the parents I know look for adult babysitters as a default. But I love my kids developing relationships with slightly older kids! It creates a real sense of community. Plus, the high schoolers tend to be way more excited for things like talking Pokemon or building pillow forts. And as a bonus, they tend to charge less than adults!
I love that! I've been trying to find more high school aged kids, but agree, it feels less common! Great reminder for me to find some!
These tips are so incredibly helpful!!