| This is a word of advice to parents who need a babysitter: keep it simple.
If you're like most parents, finding a good babysitter is a challenging task. You need someone you trust with your kids, but also someone who doesn't charge too much. Well, that's us, the spousal unit and I. Parents like us and kids like us. If we chose to, we could get babysitting assignments for all day every day. But we don't babysit that much. We just do a little sitting to pick up extra money, help our friends, and enjoy spending time with some of the kids we know.
The point is that there are things you can do to keep that babysitter that don't involve paying more. One of those things is to keep it simple. Don't overburden the sitter with a long list of tasks to be done over the course of an afternoon or evening. The sitter isn't a housekeeper and probably doesn't want to be one.
Consider, for example, this task list:
- play outside for at least an hour
- get kids to pick up toys
- practice piano for an hour
- cook and serve dinner
- get kids to assist in setting the table
- get kids to assist in cleaning kitchen
- baths for all the kids
Now, I know that's probably a light set of chores for your average parents, but it's a lot for someone who's a visitor. My strong advice, remove the non-essentials:
- play with kids
- eat delivery pizza off of paper plates
- baths if the kids won't resist too much
Let the kids and the sitter just enjoy spending time together. Let the music practice and cleanup wait til tomorrow. The sitter will find the experience much more enjoyable and will be much more likely to come back. |
