It’s your first time to hire the services of a babysitter and you have been researching about steps to take in finding a good babysitter. Aside from the usual age, gender, educational and clean background checks, you want to make sure that the babysitter who will take charge of your kids is somebody warm, patient and can handle all situations with calm and competency.

Those are great traits but finding a good babysitter possessing all those good qualities are hard to come by because not even we as parents are as perfectly capable. Perhaps in trying to find a good babysitter who will temporarily take care of the kids for us, we should apply a more realistic approach.

Even doting grandparents are not ideal babysitters because they tend to spoil our kids and allow them to do things we do not allow. As a result, children tend to challenge our authority because grandma or grandpa allows them such privileges.

Here are some practical suggestions if you’re having trouble finding a good babysitter:

1. Conduct your interview as if you’re an old friend trying to catch up with the latest about your babysitter. Ask about things in an offhand manner so she can relax and be natural with her answers.

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