How Your Babysitter Can Help Foster Your Child's Growing Sense of Independence

If you have a babysitter supervising your child for any amount of time, you are aware that their time together can greatly impact your child. If your babysitter is a long-term caretaker that sees your child several times a week, there is likely a bond there as your babysitter comes to be one of the closer adults in your child’s life, joining the ranks of family, teachers, or coaches.

When your babysitter is spending so much time with your child, you can use the time to continue teaching your child whatever you are trying to teach them in your daily lives. Depending on the age of your child, one major focus may be your child’s growing sense of independence. When instructed properly, your babysitter can help foster your child’s growing sense of independence. Keep reading to find out how you can help.

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Start with a discussion

Depending on how much time your babysitter has already spent with your child, and how much experience they have babysitting children your age, you should start with a discussion about the expectations you have of your babysitter. For some, babysitting just means supervising the child and making sure they are okay under their car. For others, this may mean a few extra tasks, such as cleaning, tutoring, and so on. If you want your babysitter to help foster your child’s growing sense of independence, start with a discussion on what you would like them to do.

For example, one thing you may be focusing on with your child is them being able to independently clean up after their messes, such as putting their toys away in their designated areas after playtime. If this is the case, let your babysitter know this is something you are working on with their child so that they can continue to work on it with your child during their time together.

Your babysitter may be used to completely cleaning up after playtime on their own and if they continue to do so while on the job, it can cause some confusion for your child if cleaning up is something they can continue to do. Discussing any changes in your child’s routine can help eliminate confusion and encourage progress within your child.

Teach your child first

If you want your babysitter to help foster your child’s growth, make sure you aren’t throwing them in blind. Your babysitter’s job is primarily to supervise, not completely parent your child. You can’t expect them to teach completely new tasks to your child on their own without your help.

For example, you can be the one introducing new tasks to your child to help identify their biggest challenges when it comes to independently executing those tasks. With their challenges in mind, you can discuss them with your babysitter to let them know what to keep an eye out for as they continue to do their own part in helping your child become more independent.

As you want your child to be more independent, you want to guide them through that as a parent, not just toss the responsibility to your babysitter first.

Babysitters can provide opportunities to be independent

Babysitters can help encourage children to be independent by providing them opportunities to do so. Your babysitter may just want to do everything for your child because they believe it is their job as a caretaker, but you can give them the go-ahead to do things a certain way to let your child be more independent with them.

Some ideas you can consider include:

- Picking up things for themselves: Kids can carry food to and from the kitchen to the table, put toys and clothes away after use, and so on.

- Executing tasks by themselves: Kids can wipe down tables after meals, dress themselves to go out, and feed the dog or get them ready to go on a walk.

- Making decisions: Kids can pick out their own clothes, offer input on their snacks or meals, or choose what activity they want to do.

- Being a helper: If kids are too young to do a task by themselves, enlist them as a helper. When preparing a meal, ask them to do smaller tasks, such as rinsing fruits and veggies or measuring and mixing ingredients.

Babysitters should remain encouraging

Your babysitter will likely take notice of your child’s growing independence and when they do, they should demonstrate some encouragement. For example, if your child takes the initiative to clean up after playtime entirely on their own, your babysitter can congratulate them with an enthusiastic and proud, “You did it on your own!”

While your child can appreciate your encouragement as they grow more independent, getting that acknowledgment from another trusted adult in their life can encourage them to keep taking that next step and take more pride and comfort in their independence.