Babysitters???

[mamaof3]

Hey- Where do you guys find your babysitters and how do you know that you can trust them. I am probably over paranoid. I would like to start having date nights with my husband. Even if it is only once a month. I have never had anybody but my family watch the kids before. Except for my daughter who goes to school but I know her teacher so I feel comfortable. I hate relying on family too much because I know that they have their own lives as well. I have seen videos of nannys getting busted on those nanny cams and it just freaks me out. I have thought of looking for a girl in high school that wants to earn some money babysitting but how do you know that you can trust them? Am I just being over paranoid? What do you guys all do?

[myboysmom]

I'm in the same boat right now. I won't have my MIL babysit anymore. I hate abusing my mom with it all the time. (Even though I know she'd say no if she didn't want to.) I've had my cousin who's 17 babysit, but she's getting old enough she wants to have a life too. So, I've got the dilemma, who is coming of age to babysit that I can trust and have as my babysitter hopefully for the next 3-4 years? We live in a small town so I know a lot of the kids here, but not well enough to babysit. But I've thought about doing what one of my friends did. She had a girl come over while they were redoing a room in their house. That way she could get a feel for what the girl was like firsthand. It is tough, though, isn't it? When we we're little, we had 5-6 different babysitters, and they were all fine. But how did our moms pick and choose?

[fuzzy]

As a former "babysitter"I can tell you some thing parents I didn't know,did! Some had me go over on a day that they were going to be there to see how I was interacting with their children and some of them spoke to my teachers(small community). If or When I look for a babysitter I will post in highschool and have interviews just like a job (i'd even like references)or I will go to the babysitters class ( I live in Canada, we have a babysitting course for teenagers)and put postings up there too! And go from there I guess.I think our mothers had more young girls to choose from now all the teens are working in fast food or retail way back when they weren't allowed to so they babysat for extra cash.