Last night I babysat a sweet little girl. We did crafts, watched Lilo & Stitch, read, and had dinner. All the usual fun babysitting activities! What was different was that I had not babysat her before and this was my first 'new family' in a while and because that was the case, I had to dig through my documents and find my babysitting forms.
Taking care of other peoples children, while fun and for the most part easy to do, is a huge responsibility! I've been a babysitter since age 9 and have always taken it seriously. It's a fantastic job and I have so much fun with the kids but it is important to remember that YOU are in charge and YOU are responsible should anything happen. This could be as small as a scrape to as big as a food allergy reaction. Since one of my many motto's is "Better safe than sorry and better paranoid than dead", I make sure I get all the information I need to be an effective care taker for the time I'm with the children.
There are certain kids (like my cousin and the two boys I nanny) that I have all these things memorized or already in my phone because I am with them frequently. When I only see a family for date night sitting, I make sure I get what I need from the parents before I go.
One of the things people forget to ask for and parents forget to leave clearly marked is the home address. In an emergency, the first thing 911 asks you is where you are. (I unfortunately know this for a fact - not from babysitting though!) If there is a child not breathing or seriously hurt, you do not want to be running outside the house looking at the number and trying to remember the street name. I've been lucky enough that the only time I've needed an address urgently while babysitting was because the pizza place was asking for it. But sitters, make sure you know where you are and parents, leave it clearly marked by the phone.
The other bits of information I get are allergies and medications. You'd think that would be common sense but unfortunately it isn't. As the sitter, you need to ask. Sometimes parents are so flustered getting out the door that they will forget to tell you. They aren't thinking about telling you because it is a part of their daily lives that is like breathing to them. If I give a child medication, I always write down the time and how much. You don't want to have given a kid a dose of Tylenol and then the parents come home a half hour later and give them another dose. That would not end well... So my point is clear communication!
The last thing I leave is my information. If something were to happen to me, I want the parents and older children to know who to call. I will admit that when I was going through some health issues, I made sure to ask the older child if he knew what to do if I wasn't breathing (I just wanted him to call 911, not attempt CPR) It sounds odd but you can't help the kids if you can't help yourself.
I have, below, the link to my Family Information form. It has spots for all the information I find useful to gather when I am taking care of someone elses children. Feel free to use this form or make your own based off of it!
The last important detail that is especially important when nannying or any time you take the children out and about is a medical release form. For my nannying job, I have a hand written one their mom made when I began with them almost 4 years ago. I keep it in my wallet because if we are going to the hospital, my purse will be with me. With other families, I leave it under the Family Information form so it's easy to grab. This document basically says that in an emergency situation, you as the nanny/babysitter can act on behalf of the parents until they arrive. Again, one of those forms you never want to use but if you need it, you want to have it. Below is a link to the one I like to use. Have the parents fill it out and leave it somewhere easy to grab!
So those were my words of wisdom on nannying and babysitting! Last bit of advice, make sure you get CPR and First Aid trained (if you aren't already) and that you renew your training every 2 years!
"A good film is when the price of the dinner, the theatre admission, and the babysitter were worth it." ~ Alfred Hitchcock
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