Finding the right babysitter

Finding the right babysitter
Expert: Martha Scully, founder of canadiansitter.ca, a babysitter database
September, 2007

“When I choose a sitter, I choose for my daughters, not myself,” says Scully, a former babysitter herself. Her girls, ages five and eight, love creative activities, so she uses two high-energy sitters: a musician and a balloon twister. When she interviews a prospective sitter, Scully keeps the atmosphere relaxed: “I wouldn’t expect the sitter to do child care in front of me since everyone’s on edge during interviews. “Scully tends to ask scenario-style questions: What would you do if my child had a fever, or if someone came to the door? If she has a good feeling about the candidate, she calls the references and asks to do a police check (“Never get relaxed on that”). Then comes a trial run: she hires the sitter for two hours while she and her husband go to a nearby café. Afterwards, she quizzes the kids with concrete questions: What games did you play? Did she raise her voice? What TV shows did you watch? (That last one is a good way to gauge how long the kids were parked in front of the TV.)