Whether you only intend to be gone for an hour or you plan to be gone for most of the day or evening, your baby sitter needs tools and information in order to provide the best care for your children.
It’s also important to give the baby sitter a tour of your home to point out important things such as fire extinguishers, hazards, open windows that need to closed and locked after dark, or anything else you consider important. Make sure the sitter also knows how various appliances work and what to do if a circuit breaker is tripped (and where the breaker box is located).
Go over household rules that apply to the children, such as bed times, as well as those that apply to the sitter, such as making or receiving phone calls or your feelings about guests in your home while you are away. If any areas are off limits to children or sitters, make this clear.
This checklist will help prepare your baby sitter, and you will likely want to add to it:
- List contact information (including cell phone and location –restaurant, etc.- in case cell has no signal) Also, list secondary locations if going more than one place.
- Emergency contact (neighbor, nearby friend or family member).
- Poison Control and emergency numbers other than 911 (make sure sitter knows your correct address.
- Electric Company (to report outages).
- A list of forbidden foods or those your child is allergic to.
- List medications including timing and proper dosage information.
- List anything the sitter needs to watch for, such as fever, if you’re child isn’t feeling well.
- List characteristics or behaviors your child engages in that the sitter needs to be aware of (climbing, biting, fear of the dark, etc).
Here is an extensive checklist that you can print out and fill in for your sitter:
Other articles that may be of interest:
Making Your Home into a Healthy Zone
Making Your Home into a Healthy Zone, II