How to Screen a College Babysitter Safely

Screening babysitters can be pretty nerve-wracking, right? After all, this is someone you will be letting into your home and trusting to take care of your child or children. It’s not a responsibility that you can just thrust on anyone. Plenty of college students have the time and experience to be a great babysitter, but that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t screen them first. The safety of your family should come before everything, so you need to screen them, but you need to be smart about it. Here is how to screen a college babysitter safely so that you can enjoy a day or night away from your children without stressing too much.

via Pexels

Conduct an Interview

First, you absolutely must conduct an in-person interview. While video calls do accomplish the basics, such as communicating your expectations and questions, there are some qualities you can only gauge in person. Believe it or not, people are using AI in these remote job interviews. Their app hears the question and gives them a perfectly polished response. This can give you the illusion that they are perfect for the role, only for them to be completely unqualified or a threat to your children. By holding interviews in person, you are able to speak face-to-face with no screens or AI answers. This gives you insight into the real college babysitter that you are interviewing. You can also use your intuition or gut feelings when meeting in person. Sometimes, something just feels off. Always trust that feeling!

In the spirit of safety, don’t invite your potential hires to your home right away. Meet them in a public space to hold your interview, like a cafe or public park. This way, you are surrounded by people, and you’re not stuck alone with someone who could potentially be dangerous.

In order to properly prepare for an interview, plan out good questions to ask them. While naturally these should include questions about babysitting and child care, such as their experience with children, why they want to babysit, and how they approach discipline, you should also ask some more general questions about each candidate. For example, questions about their current major and workload, and any criminal history.

As college students, their major can and will impact their babysitting. Someone in a notoriously difficult program might not be the best fit if you’re looking for someone who can put in a lot of consistent babysitting hours. Criminal records are essential to know about, as you wouldn’t want to bring someone who has a violent history into your home and put in charge of your children. When you put together a well-rounded list of questions, you’ll learn all about these college babysitters and whether or not they’re safe for you and your family.

Contact References

After your interview, you next need references that can help you screen your college babysitter. These don’t only need to be previous childcare clients, especially because not all college babysitters have extensive experience. In fact, you should encourage references for other aspects of their life, such as bosses in other industries and even college professors. All of these people will be able to give you a complete view of these potential hires, including their work ethic. Ask about their responsibilities, how they handled emergencies, and if they would hire them again.

In order to be absolutely safe, it is a good idea to vet these references before speaking to them on the contact information provided. It is possible that these babysitters could give fake numbers to their friends. Search the names of their references and see if you can find information that verifies what your potential hire shared. This way, you’re ensuring you are contacting real people who have worked with these students.

Trial Run

If you feel pretty secure in your choice of a college babysitter, you should schedule a trial run. This includes your college babysitter watching over your kids for just an hour or so while you remain at home, so you can keep an eye on everything that goes on.

Not only can you watch them interact with your kid and see how they handle the responsibilities that you give them, and if they remain professional, in control, and have a good grasp on everything involved. A trial run also gives you the added bonus of asking your children for their opinions. While all kids have varying degrees of comfort with new people, some might click immediately with this new college babysitter, while others don’t like them.

Safety is absolutely everything when it comes to your children, so screening your college babysitters is non-negotiable. Do everything you can to ensure you are inviting the best possible person for the job and your family into your home by staying safe.