Babysitting Secrets: Everything You Need to Have a Successful Babysitting Business

By Eleni N. Gage

This essential babysitting guide offers advice on caring for children of all ages, plus tips on meeting new families, maintaining your business, and more!
For tween and teens, babysitting can be an excellent first job. But along with new responsibility and independence, it often comes with concerns, doubts, and plenty of questions. Babysitting Secrets is your comprehensive guide to this exciting new venture.
Here you'll find tips on everything from bedtime and babies to handling your most challenging "clients". Advice on keeping young children engaged comes complete with activities and playtime ideas. Safety guidelines are also covered, including basic first aid and important phone numbers in case of an emergency.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Open Road Integrated Media
• Release date: Aug 17, 2012
• ISBN: 9781452120249

Eleni N. Gage

ELENI N. GAGE is a journalist who writes regularly for publications including Real Simple, Parade, Travel+Leisure,The New York Times, T: The New York Times Travel Magazine, Dwell, Elle, Elle Decor and The American Scholar. Currently Executive Editor at Martha Stewart Weddings and formerly beauty editor at People, Eleni graduated with an AB in Folklore and Mythology from Harvard University and an MFA from Columbia University. She lives in New York City with her husband and their young daughter.

Book preview

Babysitting Secrets

EVERYTHING YOU NEED TO HAVE A SUCCESSFUL BABYSITTING BUSINESS: A BOOK, ACTIVITIES, GAMES AND MORE!

Contents

Introduction

Business Basics

The First Time with a New Family

Plan Your Time!

Sample Day

Kitchen Confidential

Dealing with Babies

Dealing with Siblings

Sweet Dreams

When Good Kids Go Wild

Babysitting Don’ts

Secrets of a Stellar Sitter

Safety First

First Aid

Important Numbers

Saying Good-Bye

Notes

Copyright

INTRODUCTION

You love babies and little kids. Plus, you’d like to earn some extra money. What better way to do that than to become a babysitter? Babysitting can be a fun job, especially when you’re well prepared. Babysitting Secrets will help you to become the best babysitter on the block—and beyond!

BABYSITTING BASICS

This booklet will give you must-have tips on how to be a successful babysitter. You’ll find valuable information about topics ranging from starting your own babysitting business to dealing with difficult situations to safety guidelines. You can read through this booklet once to get ready for babysitting. Then you can bring it with you on babysitting jobs. Use it as a quick reference guide when you need help with different sitter situations.

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ACTIVITIES

If you ask kids what they are looking for in a babysitter, chances are the top answer will be fun! One way to guarantee fun is to get the kids you are babysitting involved in engaging activities. This box includes 50 activities and games to make sure you’ve got fun covered.

The activities and games are divided into age groups to help you decide what’s best to do with the kid or kids you are watching. This doesn’t mean you have to stick strictly to the age groups. If you’re babysitting for siblings, think about their personalities. If the younger kid wants to do everything his or her big brother or sister does, then pick a game or activity from the older age group. If the older sibling is a good helper and the little sister or brother is quite young, pick a game or activity from a lower age group. The activities are tools you can use to make your job easier. The bonus is that the kids will have fun at the same time!

The activities are also grouped by activity type. For example, you may be looking for ideas to get kids to settle down. You can scroll through the activities and look for ones with the symbol for Quiet Time activities. Or you may be babysitting on a nice day at a house with a safe yard. Then you’ll want to look for the symbols for Outdoor Play, so you can tire those tykes out! You’ll also find fun activities labeled In the Kitchen and Indoor Play.

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BUSINESS BASICS

Babysitting is the first job that many people have. Because it really is a job, you’ll want to take it very seriously. Think of babysitting as having your own business. After all, parents are entrusting you with their children, and they’re paying you for taking on that responsibility. Let’s brush up on the basics, so you can be successful and have fun!

GETTING PAID

You and the parents will need to agree on an hourly rate. How much you get paid depends on how old you are, how much experience you have, how many children you will take care of, and where you live. Ask your friends, family, and older siblings what the going rate is for different situations to get an idea of how things might work.

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