How To Find A Babysitter You Can Trust: Helpful Tips For Busy Moms

Finding a babysitter you can trust is extremely stressful. If you don’t have family nearby, which many families don’t, you have to rely on outsourcing childcare. According to Swishboom, their family users number one concern when finding a babysitter is finding one that will keep their children safe.  But how do you go about finding babysitters that you can trust, here are five handy tips when finding a trustworthy babysitter:

1. Best babysitters are ones other know

The best way to find a babysitter you can trust is by getting a reference from someone you can trust. Your friends, family, and neighbors who use a babysitter have already started the vetting process and can give you first hand recommendations for trusted babysitters. An easy way to start that process is to:

• Send a text to your closest friends asking if they have any recommendations on who they use
• Post on your social media asking for suggestions for babysitters

An app like Swishoom helps families book babysitters using the network of their families.

2. Colleges and Universities are excellent places to start

Reaching out to your local colleges and universities – specifically nursing and education schools are a great place to start sourcing babysitters. College students make excellent babysitters as they can drive, have a level of motivation that got them into college, and understand adhering to schedules and routines. Many times the specific schools have deans that are connecting families with college students who want to babysit.

3. Use Social Networks Groups with severe discretion

Facebook and Nextdoor are common places where people will post their need for a babysitter. This will result in immediate responses, but be extremely suspect of these platforms without taking numerous precautions. If you are going to post on these platforms:

• Do not post when you are looking for a babysitter as that will let the general public know when you aren’t going to be home. This can get the wrong information into bad hands.
• Do look at the profile of the babysitters thoroughly. Ensure they have friends and family members that share the same last name helping validate that they aren’t a bot.
• Do ask for references from the babysitter and do reach out to those references

4.  Reach out to your children’s school

With families that are new to an area or teachers that are looking to make side money, schools often have lists of preferred babysitters that are alumni or connected to the school. Once you get babysitter contact, find out other families who have used that babysitter. Reach out to those families and ask them about the babysitters.

‍