Babysitting Safety

• Babysitter Background Checks
• Babysitter Interviews
• Babysitter Training and Safety Courses
• Babysitting First Aid
• Babysitting Reference Checks
• Babysitting Safety
• Babysitting Safety Tips
• Games and Child Care Safety

Before you are hired for a babysitting job, the parents will want to run a background check on you to ensure safety for their child. These checks are important since people are not always upfront about their backgrounds and many will try to hide their records. A background check is not in any way an insult to you as a person or babysitter, but rather a standard procedure in the process of hiring a child care provider.

To cover all the important bases, parents who are considering you for a babysitting position will run checks on your driving records, credit reports, drug testing, past employment verification, education verification and criminal records. In order to maintain your own safety, it is a good idea to perform these same checks on the parents you are thinking of babysitting for. You cannot always take people at their word, and first impressions can often be misleading. At the very least, it is important to run a background check on the family to see if they have any kind of drug or criminal record. If they do, it is best to look for a job elsewhere.

Before you are hired for a babysitting job, the parents who are considering you for child care will want to set up an interview with you. These interviews can take place on the phone, but they are most often conducted in person. Interviews should be viewed as mutual consultations so you can both decide if the job is the right match. Once you have set up a time and place for the interview, make sure to prepare a list of questions to ask the parents. These questions should include the responsibilities you will be expected to have, the ages of the children, and the general background of the family.

When you are getting ready for an interview that will take place in person, be sure to wear appropriate attire and look professional. Parents will seldom appreciate rugged clothes or immodesty, as they may take those aspects to speak volumes about your character. During the interview, do your best to appear cheerful and confident. A positive attitude and a smile will make the children excited to see you and the parents more inclined to hire you. Above all, be sure to speak politely and appear respectful. Parents are much more prone to hire babysitters who show a high level of courtesy. Finally, make sure to ask for references and do a background check on the family before accepting the job.

Babysitting training is important because it gives child care providers the information and instruction they need to properly care for children. Even if you are experienced with babysitting, taking babysitting safety classes can be remarkably beneficial in enhancing the safety of your child care services.

Parents feel better about leaving their children with someone who has training and certification in babysitting, as well as child CPR and First Aid. Courses that offer these topics can be found at your local Red Cross chapter, hospital, YMCA or other community center. Some high schools even offer fundamental courses in babysitting training, First Aid, and CPR. If you schedule is too busy to attend babysitting training and safety courses, online classes provide everything from basic child care information to CPR and First Aid certification.

You can find online babysitter training and safety courses by conducting a search for “online babysitter classes” or “online child CPR and First Aid” using your favorite search engine. Once you have obtained any kind of babysitter training, be sure to note that on your résumé and profile so that potential families will know your level of certification and experience.

When a child you are babysitting gets injured, your knowledge of First Aid can save his or her life. While calling 911 is helpful, utilizing First Aid procedures immediately and appropriately can mean the difference between life and death in a child. Children are often clumsy and unaware, and they tend to have accidents on a frequent basis. As a babysitter, you need to know how to deal with these emergencies when they happen. If a child gets a severe cut or head injury, it is vital that you know the immediate actions to take in order to help them.

If a child has a cold and gets a nosebleed, you need to know how to stop the bleeding correctly. Even if something as simple as a small bruise or paper cut occurs, you should know how to tend to the wound properly. First Aid will teach you how to clean and bandage injuries, as well as how to deal with crises like choking or electrocution. Babysitting First Aid classes are offered online at websites like CPRandFirstAid.com, as well as at places in your area like your local Red Cross chapter, hospital, YMCA, or other community centers. Taking advantage of these classes can greatly enhance your ability to provide child care safety and manage situations appropriately if an emergency occurs while you are babysitting.

Before you are hired for a babysitting job, the parents who are considering you for child care will ask you for references so they can confirm your character and history with other people. If you have ever babysat before, it is a good idea to give the potential family the names and numbers of the parents you have provided child care for previously. However, make sure that you first ask the former family if it is okay for you to give their information out as a reference. If you have never had babysitting jobs before, consider giving the names and numbers of a few close friends, family members, or former employers.

While it is important for parents to derive accurate information about you as a babysitter, it is important for you to conduct reference checks on the family as well. Ask them for a list of at least three references you can contact. Call each of the references and inquire as to areas such as their affiliation with the family, what they know of the family’s background, their honest opinion of the parents’ character, and if they would recommend working for the family.

Maintaining safety when you are babysitting is the most important aspect of providing child care. When the parents return to their home at night, they want to find their children happy, healthy, and safe. That is why it is important to make sure you have the knowledge necessary to handle unexpected situations or emergencies. Babysitters should be familiar with CPR and First Aid. While dialing emergency numbers can be helpful, having the knowledge necessary to administer lifesaver procedures could mean the difference between a child living or dying.

Being responsible is another aspect of babysitting safety. Make sure you keep an eye on each child at all times, resisting any temptations to chat on the phone with friends or watch TV. If you play active games with the children, make sure there is enough space in the room for everyone to move about and that there are no hard surfaces or sharp edges of furniture close by. If ample space for safe play cannot be found in the house, take the children outside to their backyard or a nearby park.

When feeding children, avoid choking by cutting food into small bites. If you plan on making crafts while babysitting, make sure to use as many soft objects as possible and keep band-aids handy in case of paper cuts or other small accidents. Regardless of what activity you do with the children you are babysitting, make it a point to watch over them with the same attention you would give your own kids.

Keeping children safe is the single most important aspect of babysitting. Children are more precious to parents than anything else in the world. Therefore, maintaining safety when you provide child care for someone is a huge responsibility and should not be taken lightly. Parents will usually give you some safety guidelines for their children, oral or written, and you will need to do everything within your power to stick to those instructions while looking after the kids. Most safety rules for watching over children may seem like common sense, but in the moment it may be easy to lose sight of them. For this reason, it is a good idea to keep a list of important safety guidelines with you and review it often. Some helpful babysitting safety tips include the following:

• If someone knocks on the door, make sure you know who it is before answering.
• If you answer the phone, be wary of announcing that you are the “babysitter.” This can lead to the assumption that you are there alone with children and an easy target.
• Keep a cell phone and a list of emergency contact numbers with you at all times, in your pocket or your purse.
• If you take the children outside or on a day trip, make sure they all hold hands when crossing streets, and that everyone stays within one part of the yard or area.
• Unless it is an emergency, stay off the phone and Internet at all times. These can be significant distractions to babysitters and you may not notice if a child gets in harm's way.

Games are one of the most fun aspects of babysitting. With everything from hopscotch to tag, playing games with children is an exciting activity. Games are, however, one of the leading causes of accidents in young children. Kids are easily injured by slippery surfaces, protruding objects and other circumstances. Providing adequate child care safety is the most important task involved in babysitting. That is why it is important to uphold your responsibility to ensure child safety in games, play times and play areas. A few important child care safety tips regarding games include the following:

• Avoid slippery or wet surfaces for active play time. This includes slick hardwood floors and wet grass or walkways.
• If you are playing an active game, make sure you have ample space in the room for everyone to move around, and remove any furniture with sharp edges that may cause injury.
• If a game gets too wild, take control and end the game. Let the children run laps in the backyard to exhaust their extra energy and then settle them down with a movie or reading time.
• Never allow children to play or be rambunctious in the kitchen. Hot surfaces and sharp objects could cause serious injury.
• Keep children from playing on the steps or other precarious areas
• Make sure boardgames and other games are age-appropriate and do not contain small pieces if the children you are babysitting are very young.