Tips To Prepare Your Kids For A New Babysitter

It is very easy for anyone to say that you could engage a babysitter when you need to go out leaving the kids; but engaging a babysitter can be a trying experience for your children, the babysitter and you as a parent. After you select a babysitter take steps to ensure that the babysitter, you and your kids are comfortable with the arrangement.  

Tips to prepare your kids for a new babysitter:

• Plan ahead and prepare your kids for the change; it is not advisable to ask the babysitter to come just 5 minutes before you leave for an important event. You would then be rushing to leave and would be left with no time to instruct her about each of the kids. The short transition period would not even ensure an easy goodbye. Also the abrupt transition could leave kids feeling anxious with the babysitter feeling a bit nervous.

• To ensure that your kids are comfortable with the babysitter, make sure to invite her for a short visit and pay her for it. You could spend about half an hour observing how the children are talking, interacting and playing with her. You could introduce the babysitter and the kids and tell them how often she would be watching them. You could encourage them to ask questions to her.  You could add to the babysitter’s comfort by taking her over a tour of the house.

• Next you could leave the children along with the babysitter and go out for some time of about one hour; it could be for grocery shopping, a walk or an exercise. This would give the kids and the babysitter time to interact with each other. Once you are back talk to the babysitter and the children about what they did; this would help you know the problems that are still to be resolved.

• Preparing the babysitter to face any emergencies is very important; make sure you prepare a sheet where you give general information and give it to the babysitter in person or send through e-mail. This general information sheet should contain your physical address, email address, home phone, work phone, and cell phone; in addition it should also have the emergency contacts of neighbors and relatives. There should also be a short note of each child like name, age, likes and dislikes, behavioral patterns and bedtimes.

• Make sure the babysitter arrives at least 15 minutes earlier when she comes for the first job; this would give you time to get ready without worrying about the kids. It would also help to give last minute instructions and address last minute concerns.

All these tips may involve time and effort, but it would definitely make your children feel happy and secure with a new babysitter.