Babysitters And Child Safety
What is a 'babysitter'?
Well, a babysitter is usually the least qualified of the child care takers. They are somebody who often times is a family friend. They're the one's who are actually paid the lowest. They have the lowest qualifications to watch kids and a babysitter's job is nothing more than a house sitter. They're not necessarily someone who will do anything with regards to your child's education, their health, or their welfare. Oftentimes, parents are hiring older children to watch their children. In a lot of states that's illegal. It's called child endangerment. These are usually kids. They are people who are going to get minimum wage or below minimum wage just to hang out with your kids.
What is the best way to find a qualified babysitter?
The only way to find a qualified babysitter is to have an interview process of your own that includes background information about the child. You want to find out who else they've babysitted for. Mostly, it's a neighborhood thing. There are so many babysitters within a neighborhood filled up with kids that you should be able to get a lot of recommendations. The only real way to go and find out whether a babysitter is qualified, is to do an interview process with them. If you wanted to do a background investigation, you certainly could do that. You could ask them to participate in it, and ask them to be fingerprinted, and get their Social Security number, and get permission to look into their background; but most parents don't do that for babysitters.
Are there any federal or state regulations for babysitters?
There are government requirements for hiring a babysitter, but only with regard to child endangerment. You can't leave a newborn with a 5 year-old, and you can't leave a 12 year-old with any other kids. No matter where you are in the United States, it's child endangerment. There are slightly different age requirements - it's usually around 14 or older. A lot of parents are breaking the law and they don't know it, because they believe the local law enforcement that someone who is 12 years old, for example, is not qualified to handle emergency situations, to be a parent, or to be observant enough or experienced enough to stop a potential injury from happening before it happens. The only requirement that is the law about child endangerment is the average age of a babysitter, depending on what state you live in.
What interview questions should I ask a babysitter?
The first interview question I would ask a babysitter is if they have referrals of other parents who they babysat for. And I would ask what age they have experience in babysitting for. I would get as much personal background information as I can. I would certainly ask them if they have any health issues, if they're taking any kind of medications. I would make sure that they are not somebody who takes drugs. Drug tests nowadays are very, very inexpensive, you can go down to the drug store and buy one, so you should ask them if they're willing to participate in a drug test. When they say no, you move onto the next babysitter. But the one's that say yes, follow through with it. So I would also ask them if we can talk to their parents, get some family references, talk to their mother or their father if they're around to talk to. But mostly you're going to get a gut feeling about how they interact with your kids. I never leave a babysitter with my kids the first time without them coming way before the time for you to go out to dinner or the time for you to leave. I know it's more expensive because you're paying them by the hour, but I'd still hang out with them for the first two hours anyway. Just get to know them, you don't always have to be in the room with them, but see how the kids react to the babysitter and vice versa.
Should I do a background check on a babysitter?
You don't necessarily have to do a background check on every babysitter as it's difficult to do, and sometimes it takes a long time to get the information back. But the background checks aren't a guarantee anyway. You can have somebody who has been abusing children for ages and has never getting caught with no previous criminal record. So background checks are important but you don't really need to do one on every single babysitter. It's more important to use your own intuition and get to know them, to know their background, to watch the way they interact with your kids, to ask the right interview questions and to also make sure they understand your house rules and to make sure that they're followed.
What safety rules should I teach my child before leaving him with a babysitter?
Well, there are a variety of safety rules that you need to teach your children in general, depending on what age they are. You need to remember before that kids are invincible, and they don't like safety, they don't think the house is going to catch on fire, and they don't think they're going to get into a bicycle accident. So, you're talking to an audience that already doesn't think that they're going to ever get hurt. So you need to teach them some basic things. You need to make sure that they know how to contact you if they're of speaking age. You need to make sure that they know when to contact you, for instance, not every five minutes because the nanny doesn't want them to watch a TV show. They need to know what the difference is between a potentially dangerous situation and something that's not dangerous. So anything to do with home safety; fire prevention. Anything to do with medical safety; if the nanny were perhaps unconscious, it happens, or the babysitter. Sometimes adults lives are saved by children who know how to dial 911. You hear that in the news all the time. So I would make sure they know how to dial 911, and I would make sure that they know how to call other neighbors. I would put them through a little bit of basic home training about any type of medical emergency. And we have age appropriate information you can always get on our website about what to teach your kids. So if you go to csn.org you can download all the information that you would want to teach your kid before they're with a babysitter.
How can I make my home safe before leaving my child with a babysitter?
You want to follow all the same safety rules that you would whether there's a babysitter or not. You want to make sure there aren't any dangerous objects in your home. You want to make sure that anything that is a poison or that can be ingested is out of the reach of children. You want to make sure that if your house has any firearms in it, that they are properly secure. So those types of things. There's also areas of the house that you may want to lock. A lot of kids don't get hurt in the house; they get hurt in the garage, because that's where all of dad's power tools are, and that's where other objects are that you may not keep as safe as you would inside your house. So, usually, you usually just do the basics to, which incorporates "baby-proofing" your house. You go around your entire house at the same eye-level as your child. So if they are a toddler, you need to get down on your hands and knees, crawl all over your house, find out whatever you can put in your mouth and choke on or what you can electrocute yourself on and move it. Either cut it off or move it. So, it's really a common-sense thing, but I would also make sure that any of the food that you don't want them to get a hold of-- it could even be alcohol that happens to be sitting there-- make sure that anything you don't want your child to be in contact with is out of their reach.
What house rules should I set for a babysitter?
How can I ensure my babysitter follows house rules?
The only way that you can ensure your babysitter is following the house rules is by number one, popping in unexpectedly. We mentioned nanny cams - that is one way to do it, you certainly can watch how your babysitter interacts with your child. You can talk to your children and ask if any of the rules were broken. Those are really the only ways you can do it. Unless a friend of yours or a neighbor or a relative wants to pop over and hang out also while the babysitter is there, and maybe give you a little bit of a report of how they're doing and how they're interacting with your children, it's very difficult to know.
What are signs my babysitter has abused my child?
The signs that your babysitter has abused your child are going to come directly from your child. You're going to notice a behavioral difference. If it's a physical abuse situation where your babysitter says "Oh, your child fell down the stairs and that's why they have a black eye", you certainly are going to want to investigate that. Whenever you do find that there is something odd, such as the behavior in your child has changed and they're afraid to be around that babysitter or they don't want to talk about it, you should investigate it further. Babysitters can often, if they do something wrong, convince kids not to tell. It happens a lot. Kids are convinced to keep secrets from their parents for reasons that they think are going to be worse than telling the truth. What I would do is immediately stop contact between the babysitter and the child. You would have to think about whether you want to file a child abuse investigation case and call the local police department. What you want to do immediately is stop using that babysitter.
