Call me overprotective, call me paranoid.
Who do you trust to watch your children when you need to do adult things? For us it’s only ever been family. And by family I mean my mother or my mother-in-law. No one else. Call me over protective, call me paranoid. I just don’t feel comfortable leaving my kids with someone who is not related to either me or my husband by blood. Sure I have many friends that I trust and love but they either a) don’t live close enough to babysit when I have an appointment or b) would be totally unprepared to handle two small children (sorry friends, I love you dearly but it’s a lot of work).
Anyway, how do you go about finding someone to babysit your kids? Just thinking about it makes me want to vomit. Yet I know that it is something that many parents do all the time. Heck, I made tons of cash growing up watching other people’s kids and I was a nanny for about seven of the last ten years in some capacity. So why is it so hard for me to imagine someone unrelated to me taking care of my children when I counted on other people to hire me to watch theirs?
There is no way that I can go the rest of my life (ok, probably the next 12 or so years) without having to have a “stranger” watch my kids. A time will come where Scott and I both need to go somewhere when neither my family or his will be available to babysit. My mother-in-law lives seventy miles away, and although she’d come up in a heartbeat, sometimes it’s just not feasible. My mother is pretty close by and helps out a lot but she has other grand kids and also has a pretty busy life herself.
So what is the best way to go about finding a babysitter? I’d hope to be able to find someone who was like me when I was in high school and college. I loved kids (still do) and had so much fun as a babysitter. But I get a little bit uneasy thinking about the ones who interview great but then end up sitting on the couch watching TV and talking on the phone while the kids get into everything and go unfed.
Add this to the list of not the hardest but still hard parts of parenting.
(Photo is NOT of my child)
about 3 years ago
I have yet to have a stranger watch my daughters…it freaks me out too much! Since we don’t have family here we rarely get the chance to go out, but that’s okay…for now.
I did get the name and number of a babysitter that a few of the moms in my playgroup recommended…I’ll let you know when I get brave enough to call them…
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Kristin Reply:
March 29th, 2010 at 10:22 am
It’s nice to have the family close but they’re not always available either. My oldest is 3.5 and I can count on one hand the number of times that we’ve gone out alone for more than a few hours. It’s hard!
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about 3 years ago
I’m the same way. I’ve yet to let anyone other than family members watch Anna. If none of them can watch her, I just don’t go. I haven’t worked up the courage to interview anyone else yet. I just remember my own babysitters, and most of them were pretty darn horrible – even if my mom thought they were great in the interview. So, that has made me jaded.
Do you go to church? Maybe talk to the pastor there to see if he can recommend someone from the youth group who may be interested.
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Kristin Reply:
March 29th, 2010 at 10:23 am
The other hard part is that when you hire someone who is not family, that means you have to pay them
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about 3 years ago
By the time I have kids, your girls will be able to babysit them! Haha.
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about 3 years ago
Amen! My daughter, though only 8 months, has never been watched by anyone other than my mom and dad. It’s still hard enough for me to leave her and the thought of someone other than a family member watching her well, that’s just out of the question…for now.
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about 3 years ago
referals from friends and family or friends kids(if/when old enough), it’s very hard to leave them the first time. HOWEVER you will notice it’s A LOT easier when you trust the person…. if it feels right, it is
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about 3 years ago
I’ laughing sooo hard at this. Thanks for your PS – that it wasn’t your child… I serioulsy thought it may have been!!
I know ALL TOO MUCH about interviewing sitters who are amazing during the process and you think they’ll be sooo dreamy… and all they are is… well… A FULL TIME TEXTER!! Then, the other ones who you totally think are too shy, or a “dud”, wind up being your, and your child’s/children’s, favs. It gets easier!
Now, I’m just happy to FIND someone who is WILLING to watch 4 kids! They wind up interviewing ME!
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about 3 years ago
We have a few close friends that I would babysit. One has grown kids and the other is my “mama guru” friend. She is the one I go to for parenting advice so I trust her with my kid. But on the other hand, we have family that we don’t let babysit because they don’t have experience with infants. For me, it’s about their experience with kids and their relationship to me. Both have to be pretty strong. I’m not ready to hire a high school kid yet, although many have offered.
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