A Good Babysitter is Hard to Find

When I was a teenager, I was a great babysitter. I had a babysitting bag full of coloring books, crayons, and crafts. When that stuff got old, I had a head full of fun and games to entertain the kids. I took the Red Cross babysitters class where I learned first aid, and infant/child CPR. I made dinner, read books and always made sure the house was cleaner at the end of the night than it was when I arrived. And I did all of this for $2 an hour, and $1 for each additional child. Unless the parents were attending the temple or a church meeting, then I happily did it for free.

And why did I do this? Because my mom taught me that this was what a good babysitter was supposed to do. Sure it has been 15 years since that time, and I know there is this thing called inflation, but it is still hard for me to believe that I pay a teenage girl $8 an hour to sit on my couch while my kids watch movies and then come home to a house that looks like it was hit by a tornado.

Okay, I will admit that it doesn't always happen like this. Not all babysitters are bad. In fact, I have found a girl that is pretty good- we'll call her Kay. My kids still watch some movies while she's around, but she likes to play with them too and I know my kitchen will always be clean when I come home because before she collapses in front of the tv after the chillin's go to bed, she spends some time cleaning. She doesn't just wash the dishes, she scrubs the stove, wipes the counters, empties the dishwasher, cleans the high chair, and last night she even spent a good amount of time scraping the mysterious crayon wax drips off the oven (still a bitter reminder of the scribble crayon disaster that occurred months ago). With her, at least I don't feel bitter about paying the going rate.

But she wasn't always like this. I heard through the grapevine that a young woman in the ward who was going off to college took Kay aside and let her know that cleaning was something a good babysitter did. From then on, Kay incorporated it into her services. God bless that college-bound girl.

Some people might think Kay should get payed even more for going the extra mile, but in my opinion, she is the only one that has actually earned the money. The sad thing is, I feel this girl is about as good as they come anymore. And I feel lucky to even have her. In some places, I have heard it is almost impossible to find a teenage babysitter at all. Schedules are too packed, kids don't need the money and/or the parents don't think it's good use of their teenage children's time.

I am already planning on teaching my kids how to be good babysitters. While I realize not all kids are interested in babysitting, I think the lessons that can be taught here-starting at a young age (most kids start babysitting at 12?) are very important. It goes beyond just the knowledge of how to care for children, it also encompasses becoming a hard worker and someone who takes pride in a job well done. It should also teach responsibility and how to earn an honest days pay - something I feel too many teenagers know nothing about. Are parents completely failing to teach their children how to work these days? Or do teenagers just not care?

For now, I will take the babysitters I can get and try to turn them into the good babysitters I want them to be...until they decide that it's too much work to be a babysitter and start screening my calls and I am never able to leave my house without the children again.


A few more questions to think about: What makes a good babysitter in your eyes? What do you expect for your money's worth? Is babysitting something you will encourage your own children to do even if they don't need the money (this would be at an age before they can take on a "real" job)?