Follow these tips and they’ll ask you back to babysit
I’ve had several sitters ask me what they can do to make sure parents ask them back to babysit, so here are my top 5 suggestions to help you make yourself indispensable as a babysitter.
1. Respond quickly when they ask you to babysit
Many parents have a sense of anxiety and/or panic when trying to schedule a babysitter. They may have an important event that they need to attend, or may need to RSVP quickly. Get off on the right foot by responding quickly to a parent’s request. If you can’t answer right away, let them know you are checking your schedule and then get back to them as soon as possible.
2. Arrive on time
Make it a general rule to arrive 5 minutes before the scheduled time — that way there won’t be one moment when a parent has to wonder if you remembered you were supposed to babysit for them.
3. Engage with the kids
When you are babysitting, give the kids your FULL attention. Most parents I know will ask their kids if they had fun with the babysitter, and they’ll also ask what they did. If the kiddos tell mom and dad that they played outside while you talked on the phone, you probably won’t be asked back.
Are you great at a sport, or do you love music? Figure out a way to incorporate your interests into your time with the kids. Play basketball. Teach them a new tune on the piano. Bottom line — make it fun!
4. Enforce the rules
So make it fun, but not so fun that you disregard the rules of the house. If mom and dad have asked you to have the kids in bed at 8:30, then get them to bed at 8:30. If they said “no TV”, then keep it off. Even if the kids think you’re fabulous, they will generally tell the parents what went on, so make sure you are doing what they asked of you.
5. Leave the house neat
This is a huge one for me! There’s nothing worse than coming home after an evening out to find your sitter lounging on the couch, then looking around to find that the house is a wreck.
If you find yourself with some quiet time after the kids have gone to bed, spend some time picking up and aim to make the house look better than when you arrived. I’m not talking about heavy cleaning – just tidying up. Never leave your dirty dishes in the sink for the parents to clean up! (It sounds obvious, but it’s happened to me more than once.)
If you follow these simple tips, parents will be beating down your door to ask you to babysit!
