Do you want to be the best teen babysitter around? Discover how to start a teen babysitting business, get clients, and keep them!
Are You Ready to Be a Teen Babysitter?
The responsibility of taking care of another person’s children is enormous. Teen babysitters must be responsible and have a good rapport with children in order to succeed. There are a few other factors you should consider before making babysitting your part-time job.
Be Flexible
It’s great if you are involved in a lot of sports and extracurricular activities. If you’re almost always busy, it will affect how often you’re contacted.
Get Certified
Get CPR and First Aid Infant and Child Certified if you are serious about making money from babysitting gigs. You may also want to take the American Red Cross Babysitting Class if you are a younger teen. The class is designed for teens and tweens (ages 11 to 15) as an introduction to handling various situations to ensure the safety of your charges.
Be Creative
Rarely does a parent want you to sit with her child in front of the television non-stop. Parents don’t expect you to bring something for their child to do, but if you are prepared to do a craft or activity with their child, you will find that many parents will call you back.
Be Mature
You may be mature enough to stay at home by yourself or go somewhere without adult supervision, but are you mature enough to care for someone else’s child? As a result, you should focus all of your attention on the child while on the job.
Moreover, it means that you are capable of handling unexpected situations without asking what to do.
Things Expected of Teen Babysitters
In order to keep your job as a teen babysitter, and to receive your payment, if you are being paid for the job, you will have to follow certain expectations of the parents you babysit for. Teen babysitters are usually expected to do the following:
- Assuring that the children don’t get hurt or into trouble while you’re in charge
- Taking care of the kids’ food
- Taking care of any messes you or your children have made
- Answering the phone or answering the doorbell
- Making sure the children go to bed when their parents want them to
- Keeping the children entertained until the parents arrive
In the right hands, babysitting can help you prepare for life, so long as you take it seriously. You should take all necessary precautions to ensure the safety of children if someone trusts you to watch their children.
How to Start a Teen Babysitter Business
You’ve got your certifications, you’ve got your ideas–now all you need is parents who will leave their children with you for a few hours! You can get babysitting jobs in a few different ways.
Babysit
Word of mouth spreads quickly among parents. It is likely that if you do a really good job babysitting one parent’s children, they will talk about you and recommend you to their friends. In addition, if you do a poor job, word of mouth can spread or kill your business.
If you cannot find paid gigs at first, consider volunteering as a mother’s helper. While providing a needed service to a mom, you gain some experience, and the mom gets to see how you interact with her children.
If you do a good job, your mom is likely to call you again, and she is also likely to tell her friends about you.
Advertise
Post a flyer at your local grocery store, in the community center, or in mailboxes around your neighborhood. If you are certified or have other qualifications, this is a good way to advertise. Furthermore, you can state what pay you expect and when you’re available.
Teen Babysitter Questions
Starting your own teen babysitter business isn’t hard, but perseverance and business knowledge are essential. Here are some answers to some of those more difficult questions.
What do I charge?
The best way to figure out what to charge is to look at what local daycares charge and ask for half. Depending on where you live, you’ll be able to charge a different amount. The average rate per child is $1.50 an hour in some places, while it is $10 per hour in others. You want to be fair, but you also want to make money if this is how you’re paying for college.
You should never say that you are fine with any amount of money unless it is truly true. The majority of parents, especially those who have never hired a babysitter before, are not sure how much to pay but are happy to pay what they are asked.
What do I do if the parents are late coming home?
It depends on the reason they are late coming home. It is important to keep in mind, however, that if you show up late at babysitting jobs, you will not be able to keep them. Showing up when they say they will is common courtesy on their part.
Even though there isn’t much you can do while babysitting, you can be forever “busy” whenever the family calls.
What if the children are wild?
You are better off being honest about what you can handle and turning down jobs than getting yourself in over your head. It is generally the case that kids get a little out of control when they are bored, due to the fact that they are usually bored.
Play a game of kick ball in the yard after dinner if you’re responsible for putting the children to bed. Even so, you should keep the children entertained, which will make your job easier by reducing behavior problems.
Babysitting Is a Big Responsibility
It can be very rewarding to be a teen babysitter. As a teen babysitter, you are often given a first taste of what it’s like to have an employer and a job, in addition to being able to save up money for college.