Parents’ Night Out

Expert tips for hiring a babysitter you trust.

By Amy Overgaard

THE HOLIDAY SEASON IS JUST AROUND THE CORNER, and for many parents this means more kidfree evening commitments than usual. Between holiday celebrations, year-end company parties, New Year’s Eve and perhaps an extra date night or two, many parents will be turning to babysitters.

For those who had babies during COVID-19, this holiday season may be the first time you’re calling in a sitter. For others, it may be the first time that you’re having someone other than family watch your children.

Laura Davis, Edina franchisee of Jovie (formerly College Nannies + Sitters), says the anxiety of leaving your kids with a sitter for the first time is very real. To help alleviate some of that anxiety, Davis shares some tips on how to find a babysitter you trust.

First and foremost, “You need to build your team of caregivers,” Davis says. “That can be family [members], it can be a referral—somebody that you work with, the neighbor girl down the street—or it can be through a professional agency such as [Jovie].”

If you’re embarking on finding a sitter on your own, be sure to discover more about a potential sitter’s background through an in-person or video interview. Here’s what Davis says you should ask:

• Experience: Don’t just ask about how long they’ve been babysitting, but ask specifically about their experience caring for children that are the same age as your children.

“Care for a 6-month-old and care for a 6-year-old is very different,” Davis says. “So you want to ask about the length of experience with the age of children that you have.” • Preparedness: Davis suggests following up with a more specific question.

She says, “Tell me about what you’ve done when you babysat for an X-yearold.” Hearing about activities they’d

plan, food they’d prepare or how they handle bedtime will help you get a better idea of how experienced they are. • Emergencies: Davis says it’s also important to ask about if they’ve ever dealt with an emergency when babysitting and how they handled it.

“You’re not looking for how or why [it] happened. You’re looking for what was the [solution] and how did they solve that,” she says. • References: As with any job—but especially when the safety of your children is in the balance—it’s so important to ask for references.

Davis suggests asking for three: two work references and one character reference. And don’t neglect actually calling and checking in on the references, Davis says. But ultimately,

“Trust your gut,” she says.

If you feel overwhelmed at the search process, Jovie’s sitter service can help. “When you enroll in our service, we meet with you virtually, and we do an intake,” Davis says. “So, we know the ages of your children, if you have pets and if there’s allergies and the profile, if you will, of your family and where you’re located, and then you have access to our team of caregivers.”

Davis notes that all Jovie caregivers are “fully vetted, meaning we have interviewed, we have determined what ages they're qualified to work for, we have done all the references and we have done background screening at the county, state and national level.”

But once you have a babysitter in place, then what? How do you handle the anxiety of leaving your child at home with a sitter for the first time—or your child’s separation anxiety? Davis is sharing more tips on how to prepare you and your kids for your big night out on edinamag.com.

Jovie Edina, 3948 West 50th Street; jovie.com Jovie @joviecare PILATES | GYROTONIC METHOD® YOGA | TRX® | MAT FUSION

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