How to Choose a Babysitter Who Builds Life Skills

With summer in full swing, you might still be looking for a babysitter who fits your schedule and takes care of your kids with ease. But you know there’s something else about the search that’s making it a little tricky. It’s one thing to want your kids to get along with the babysitter, but you’re also looking for how they can build communication skills. You want a sitter who can take care of the playroom so you’re not putting away toys well into the night and can also teach your kids valuable clean-up skills. Even for the sitter, you want to foster an environment where they learn to adapt to each child’s needs, becoming a more versatile caregiver. As a parent, you may be wondering how you can make this a skill-building experience for the kids and the sitter.

Well, you’re in luck, as we have a step-by-step process for making babysitting a win-win situation where your children develop social skills and your babysitter develops better caregiving skills. By the end, you’ll know exactly who you’re searching for, how to make your home a learning environment for both parties, and how to keep track of their growth. This article is divided into 3 sections: Looking for the Right Sitter, Helping Your Sitter Build Caregiving Skills, and Helping Your Children Build Life Skills.

Looking for the Right Sitter

Your first step is to find a sitter who meets the minimum qualifications to care for your kids. It’s one thing to pick a babysitter who’s available ASAP or lives close to home. Still, you have to think more about long-term compatibility, which generally outweighs a slightly longer commute time. When you’re on the search, be sure to:

• Look for Certifications: The best parameter is certifications. Are they First-Aid/CPR certified? Do they have work experience in daycare/early-learning facilities? These signposts can help you find someone who may be more familiar with the process, making it easier to create a skill-building environment.
• What’s their personality like?: When you’ve found a babysitter who has the basic qualifications you’re looking for, you’ll want to conduct an in-person interview to assess their personality and core values as a caregiver. Some questions you’ll want to ask are:
  • How well do you work with children who want to lead playtime?
  • How do you respond to outspoken and logical thinkers?
  • Are you great with imaginative and/or spontaneous play?
  • How do you handle a child’s meltdown if they are striving for perfection?
  • How do you facilitate discussions with open-ended questions?
  • Do you prefer more cooperative or independent playtime?

Matching a babysitter to your child’s personality is paramount for creating a strong learning environment. For more information, check out this article.

Helping Your Sitter Build Caregiving Skills

If your babysitter expresses interest in improving their skills, you have plenty of tools in your pocket to support them as a parent. While they are settling into their new role, you can try:

• Letting them Lead Communication and Activities: While your rules remain your rules, sitters learn to lead in environments where parents can trust their authority. An example is allowing them to update you on how the day is going and letting them take the lead on what activities they’ll do that day, such as ensuring reading time and clean up are done by a certain time, which gives them the freedom to create a new activity as a reward. By allowing sitters to lead some activities and to communicate meaningfully, they can learn to establish leadership in a supportive manner.
• Problem-Solving and Empathy: If there is conflict, such as sibling arguments or bedtime resistance, allow your sitter to resolve it so they can learn to stay calm in stressful situations by practicing valuable de-escalation techniques, such as serving as a mediator for healthy conflict resolution.

For more information on building a better relationship with your babysitter, check out this article.

Helping Your Children Build Life Skills

A great babysitter uses play as a tool for cognitive and social development, helping kids build core skills while having fun. As a parent, you’ll also want to focus on how they can build useful life skills for cleaning up, managing daytime and nighttime routines, and leading their own playtime. To help in this area, you can try:

• Creativity and Innovation: Tactile and imaginative play are some of the best areas to work with. From building blocks and play kitchens to using cardboard boxes to build forts and castles, children can learn how to build within their environment and think outside of the box, quite literally and figuratively.
• Problem-Solving and Motor Skills: Playing board games, gravity maze games, treasure hunts, and completing puzzles challenge children to think logically and refine their fine motor skills. The best part is that the babysitter can include your kids in building some of the games, which encourages more cooperation.
• Social and Emotional Learning: Role-playing games teach kids how to follow directions, share, and manage emotions. These include helping your children create home plays and musicals, and having kids in the neighborhood play outside. By working with these activities, especially with the babysitter, it can help strengthen their relationship with their inner circle, learn more about cooperative play, and be more social as they enter pre-school, for instance.
• Independence and Routine: A critical skill to learn is independence in their routine. The more you allow choices, the more they can think for themselves. It’s not about giving them an abundance of choices or letting them decide if they don’t want to do a non-negotiable, such as reading. It’s more about framing, such as “What book do you want to read?” or “Which area do you want to clean up first?” These decisions allow children to choose how they want to clean up, strengthening their autonomy and reinforcing a routine they can get accustomed to.

While these are great steps for babysitters and children to build their skills, there may come a time when you can recognize that your children are not getting along with the babysitter. For more information on helping them get along, check out this article. By now, however, you are all set with the right information and tools to make your home a safe learning environment for your children, babysitter, and you. Good luck!