The Good Help Guide

Nine months of carrying, hours of labour, months of milking, countless wakeful nights, snot wipes, bum wipes, diaper changes, 500 loads of laundry, hormone induced mood swings and the most overwhelming sense of love and purpose. Did we leave out the extra 10–15 pounds of love (handles)?

After all of that, we know you wouldn’t leave your most prized possession with just anybody. 

Luckily, Martha Scully from CanadianNanny.ca has been setting moms up with babysitters and nannies across Canada for years and knows more than a few things about hiring and managing a sitter. 

Her advice:

1. DO do the reference check.  (You never know what you can learn).
2. Make sure anyone watching an infant or child has current first aid qualifications.
3. Talk to your kids and prepare them ahead of time with someone new. Do NOT sneak out! This is a savvy no no. It’s not fair on the kids or the sitter.

4. Give your babysitter a tour of your home and make sure she knows where the first aid kit and any other essentials are.
5. Leave all emergency information handy and include local emergency services, your mobile number, the phone number of where you will be and a backup number for another adult (neighbours are a good option if you know them because of their close proximity in case of an emergency).
6. Write out ALL instructions regarding the care, feeding and schedule of young children and babies. You can’t expect a sitter to remember all the instructions you rambled off while walking out the door applying your lipstick.

Now you know what you’re doing when you get the sitter in the door, but what about the very tricky part of finding her in the first place?

One of our fave strategies is what we call the ‘park intercept’. Pay attention to the babysitters at the park and in your neighbourhood that are good with other children. If you like what you see, ask for a phone number. If that sitter is not available, she might have a friend who is.

Stuck at your desk? No time to find a sitter until late in the evening? We’ve got the solution. CanadianNanny.ca provides an online connection for parents to find university/college level babysitters located close to them and with the qualifications they are looking for. Post your requirements and let the sitters (there are 1000’s in the directory) come to you 24/7. 

Whoever said it was impossible to find good help these days? Clearly they didn’t know about the internet.