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Sittercity or Care.com: Which Is Better?

Is your search for a sitter proving to be tougher than you thought?

Babysitter Search and the Internet

The internet has truly changed our lives. We can now shop, work, bank, or video conference with people right in the comfort of our home. With the advent of social networking sites and tools, we can even socialize and interact through our PCs with family, relatives, and friends. The internet really has made a lot of activities and information search more accessible to anyone who has a computer and internet access.

As a result of more people needing an easier way to find sitters and care providers, a new breed of service has been increasingly becoming more popular these days: online sitter services. Just like finding the right date or partner on dating sites, online sitter services provide parents and other seekers of babysitters and care providers a platform to search for the right person to hire and take care of their children or loved ones. In some cases, these online sitter services also offer other search options for nannies, tutors, pet sitters, elderly care, house cleaning, and more.

The Pros and Cons of Using Online Sitter Services

Obviously, one of the major advantages of using online sitter services is the convenience that it provides you. There is no need for you to contact (or should we say hassle or bother?) your family, friends, neighbors, and other relatives just to find out if they know of any babysitters in the neighborhood. You no longer will have to go to your local university or college campus to look at job postings for part-time babysitters. For those who usually depend on your local church for sitters, online sitter services is an additional resource for you to use. Read The Rest Of The Review.

Tips, News, and Everything About Babysitting

Choosing The Right Babysitter

3 May 2012

Taking care of kids is no joke. With the growing number of double income families more and more mothers are putting their kids in daycare or having someone babysit for them. If you are one of those mothers, what should you look for if you are trying to find the perfect babysitter?

The first thing you have to find out is that if your babysitter is CPR (cardiopulmonary resuscitation) certified. Being CPR certified means that the person have undergone training in first aid and is qualified to respond to any emergency. Aside from being certified, they should also have taken some babysitting course or safety course. Your local community center usually offers training classes or certification classes that your babysitter can take.

The second thing that you have to consider is how young do you want them to be? There are some parents that want their babysitter to be young but experienced. How young is young? If you are hiring a full-time babysitter you have to at least choose one that is exactly your age or a little older than you that is experienced. You want them to be able to handle different situation from an asthma attack to a minor cut. If you find one that is a little older they may have more experience than you. With that in mind, that is already a big plus. On the other hand, you don’t want to hire someone too old that they might not keep up with your kid. If your child has a number of allergies, you have to know if that babysitter has any experience on handling food allergies.

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Another criterion you have to consider is the background of your babysitter. When I say background, I mean getting references. Knowing how long have they been babysitting? You want to make sure that you are entrusting your child or children to a person you can trust. You want that person to treat your child like their own. Another question you have to consider is the ages the kids they babysat. Babysitting requires a lot of creativity. Learning how to manage them requires skills and presence of mind. If you ever had a babysitter you know that it takes patience and a lot of understanding to take care of child. Once you have a list of references all you have to do is give them a call and ask a couple of questions regarding her work and also her personality. You would not want to hire someone who is not reliable or who is not trustworthy.

Last but not the least, is finding out if your babysitter can handle responsibilities. Remember, your child will be staying with your babysitter for more than 8 hours a day. You would like to know if your babysitter can handle the everyday routine. Your babysitter need to know your daily schedule from feeding, bathing to disciplining. Parents appreciate babysitters who know how to balance fun and still be able to reinforce rules.

Finding the best babysitter does not limit you to these criteria. As parents you know what is best for your child or children. Mothers go by their instinct so, when hiring a babysitter mother knows best.

Interviewing a Babysitter: What Questions Should You Ask?

12 March 2012

Part of the process in getting your ideal babysitter is to knowing the right questions to ask during the in-person interview. Before you even invite the potential sitter at a coffee place or your home for the interview, you have to make sure that you are prepared yourself so that you can get all the information you need to be able to make the right decision. Interviewing a potential babysitter is not easy since you have to try to make an assessment based on the way they present themselves, how they handle the interview, their answers to your questions, and more. However, you can definitely make sure that you do not miss anything pertaining to things you would like to know about the person and a great way to do this is to have a ready set of interview questions to ask.

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The people at Mommy Savers have created a great interview question list that you can use. The list of questions contain topics that range from experience in handling children to questions pertaining to their driving background. You might like to take a quick look at the list and incorporate some of the great questions that they have collected. Having a comprehensive list such as this is great so that you do not overlook some important information that might help you in making a better decision for your hire. Do not be embarrassed to jot down notes as some parents feel that jotting down notes makes them appear too formal. Remember that you are in the driver's seat and that it's your prerogative to do anything that will help you make the best decision in hiring the right person to look after your precious little ones. Having notes is a great way to review the information provided by potential sitters in case you forget certain details and to prevent confusion on your part.

Hiring a Babysitter, Step-by-Step

Making the search process more effective

Source: Sittercity.com

At Sittercity, we always recommend that you follow a clear routine when hiring and screening a babysitter. Best if you avoid a totally blind trial-and-error process that will waste your time and efforts. Since you're going to be letting someone into your home, into your life and around your children, you'll want to make sure that you don't cut any corners during the hiring process. To help ensure that things go smoothly, we'll walk you through what we've found to be the best babysitter hiring process, step by step.

Post Your Job on Sittercity. Though you're always welcome to search through the sitters, an even easier way to find someone to care for your children is to post a job and let the babysitters contact YOU. It sounds counterintuitive, we know, but it really does work. So kick back, have a cocktail (ha! If life were that easy, would you really need a sitter?) and wait for the eager responses to roll in.

Cull Responses and Pick Your Top 10. We've got some awesome babysitters on our site, so odds are you'll come across a slew of local Super Nannies who have faced earth-shattering tantrums, been elbow-deep in poop and know the value of a harmless bribe. Narrow down your responses to your top 10 favorites before diving any deeper into the process.

Screening Step 1: Check Online Feedback. Will you honestly have time to interview all 10 babysitters? Unlikely. So you'll want to start thinking about getting your list down to a solid five. Step one in the screening process is to check the babysitters' profiles to see if parents have left online feedback that may help you make a decide on your top five.

Screening Step Optional: Phone Interviews. Once you have your top five, you may choose to call the babysitters to chat with them on the phone and get a feel for their personalities. Does she sound bubbly and friendly or like an unenthused Debbie Downer? Listen to your intuition - if something doesn't feel right, no amount of questioning is going to settle those inner inklings.

Screening Step Two: In-Person Interviews. Armed with your Sittercity list of interview questions, ask the babysitters the questions you feel most important in determining which one of them is a great match for the job. And make it a family affair - don't be afraid to sic your children on the sitter. Pluck them from their Play Stations and watch them interact with each candidate. If the babysitter can't handle them now, she can't handle them when you're out.

Screening Step Three: Check References. By now, you probably have your top three babysitters in mind. Time to check each candidate's references. Each Sittercity sitter lists at least one reference in her profile, so that is a good place to start. Call or email these references with the reference questions you've found on right here in our library.

Select the Top Three Sitters. Screening process nearing completion, you've taken the necessary steps to selecting three qualified sitters who are perfect for the job. Pick your favorite and use that babysitter as your primary babysitter. The other two babysitters can serve as backups in case your primary babysitter can't make it to a job.

Screening Step Four: Conduct a Background Check. Don't hire your favorite sitter quite yet. Is she going to be your biggest ally or your biggest mistake? Run a background check through Sittercity's partner, LexisNexis, to be sure. It's only $9.99 and will provide you with peace of mind that's utterly priceless.

The Babysitting Guide: Babysitting Options

Find the right type of babysitter for you

Source: Care.com

The best babysitter for you is one who fits your needs, your budget, the level of experience required and overall personality fit. You can expect different things from sitters with different levels of experience. Generally speaking, pay increases with level of experience and special skills, such as tutoring or special needs experience.

• High school sitters are a good option for families that need after school care (assuming the teen isn't loaded down with extracurricular). If the teen doesn't have much experience, consider trying the first few babysitting sessions while you're at home so you can provide feedback and answer any questions.

• College sitters are a good option for identifying more mature, experienced sitters. Just be sure to ask up front about reliability around typically busy times during the academic calendar, such as exam periods, holiday vacations, and graduation.

• Mature sitters could represent anything from professional child caregivers to older women looking for supplemental income now that their own children are grown and out of the house. Day care and elementary school teachers are often interested in doing extra babysitting, too, and come with great child care and child development experience.

• Family members or trustworthy neighbors are good babysitting options given the familiarity factor, and also since they likely will want to spend time with your child free of charge. Even so, be sure to ask about compensation. If they want to babysit for free, consider having dinner ready (or cash and a stack of your favorite take-out menus) or perhaps follow up with a nice bottle of wine or bag of good coffee. Be sure to set expectations and guidelines the same way you would with a hired sitter. It paves the way for managing the relationship should any issues arise. Today, more and more people are turning to family members to help with their care needs.

• Mother's helpers are usually in middle school or junior high. In many cases, they are known to the family (the parents may be family friends) and live in the neighborhood. Mother's helpers usually help out around the house while you are at home, as they maybe too young or inexperienced to leave along with your children. It's a nice opportunity for a young person who wants to gain experience and then try their hand at babysitting once they're old enough. Mother's helpers can do a variety of tasks from playing with the kids while you make dinner, to helping fold laundry, assisting at a birthday party, or more.

• Check Care.com for babysitters of all ages and experience level. Search for pre-screened babysitters at Care.com. View their profiles and see who fits your particular needs or post a job and get responses right away from babysitters in your neighborhood.