Questions to Ask a Potential Babysitter
Interviewing a sitter usually happens in ten minutes at a kitchen table, and the questions worth using are the concrete ones. These twenty-two cover current first aid certification, what they would do about a head knock or an allergic reaction, how they handle bedtime and a child who has been told twice, water and pets, phones and visitors, and the money and cancellation terms. Written for hiring an evening or weekend sitter, whether that is a teenager from down the road or an experienced adult.
The questions
Open any question for the note
What ages have you looked after, and how recently?
Why ask it
Caring for a nine-year-old and caring for a one-year-old share almost nothing practically. Recency matters as much as range, because a sitter whose only baby experience was a cousin four years ago is starting again with yours.
Are your CPR and first aid certificates current, and when did you last renew them?
Why ask it
Certification lapses, typically after a couple of years, and infant CPR is taught separately from the adult version. Ask to see the card. If they are not certified, decide whether you will pay for a course, which many families do for a regular sitter.
Can you give me two families to call, including one from the last few months?
Why ask it
An old reference tells you they were once reliable. When you call, ask whether the sitter was ever late, whether anything went wrong, and whether they would use them again for an overnight. Vague warmth on the phone usually means something unsaid.
Tell me about the last time something went wrong while you were sitting
Why ask it
Anyone with real experience has a story: a fall, a locked door, a child who would not settle, a parent home much later than agreed. What you want is the sequence of what they did. A claim that nothing has ever gone wrong means limited experience or a habit of not mentioning things.
What would you do if a child fell and hit their head?
Why ask it
Listen for the practical order: check the child, keep them still and watched, call you, call emergency services if certain things are true. A sitter who reaches straight for cleaning up and not telling you is the concerning answer, and it does happen.
Where would you take a child in an emergency, and how would you get there?
Why ask it
Most sitters have never thought about this. If they do not drive, the answer is an ambulance and a neighbour, which is fine as long as it is decided in advance. Use the question to establish who the local backup adult is.
What would you do if you could not reach me?
Why ask it
Phones die and venues have no signal. A good answer includes trying the second contact, then a neighbour, and never leaving the house with the children without telling someone. Agree the chain out loud, then write it down for the fridge.
My child has an allergy, asthma, or a daily medicine. Have you dealt with that, and can you use an auto-injector or an inhaler?
Why ask it
Name your child's actual condition. Willingness is not the same as competence, so if the answer is no, demonstrate the device with the trainer, write the steps down, and be honest with yourself about whether an inexperienced sitter is the right choice.
Would you be supervising a bath, a paddling pool, or the pool, and what are your rules around water?
Why ask it
Drowning is quiet and fast, and it happens in very little water. You want to hear that they stay within arm's reach, never leave to answer a phone or a door, and empty the tub afterwards. Anyone who treats this as excessive should not be near your bathroom.
What would you do if my toddler cried for an hour and nothing worked?
Why ask it
The honest answer involves running out of ideas and calling you, which is exactly what you want. Sitters who describe an infallible technique are either very experienced or have not met a determined toddler at nine in the evening.
How do you handle bedtime with a child who keeps getting up?
Why ask it
Bedtime is where most evening sits actually get difficult, and children push a new adult harder than they push you. Look for someone who will hold your routine rather than invent a better one, and who does not treat being tested as defiance.
What do you do when a child has been told twice and does it again?
Why ask it
More useful than asking about discipline in the abstract, because it produces the actual method. Say your own rules plainly in response: no shouting, no withholding food, whatever applies. Silence on your part here is how mismatches happen.
How do you handle two children fighting?
Why ask it
If you have more than one child, this is the recurring event of every evening. Listen for separating first and adjudicating later, and for whether they instinctively side with the smaller or the louder one, which siblings notice immediately.
What do you do about screens?
Why ask it
Screens are the default fallback of a tired sitter, and children negotiate hard for them. Give your limit as a number rather than a principle, and ask what they would do when a child insists you allow more, because that claim will be made.
How do you feel about our dog, and are you happy with the rules for the animals?
Why ask it
Allergies, nerves around dogs, and unwillingness to walk or feed an animal all turn up on the first evening otherwise. Introduce them to the pets while they are there, because a sitter who is uneasy will manage the children from across the room.
Do you drive, and would you be driving my children anywhere?
Why ask it
If driving is part of the job, ask about licence, insurance, and whether they can fit and check your car seats. Many families keep sitters out of the car entirely, and that is a simpler arrangement than confirming cover on someone else's policy.
Will anyone else be in the house while you are here?
Why ask it
Friends and partners dropping in is the most common quiet breach of a sitting arrangement, particularly with teenagers. Say your rule plainly rather than assuming it is obvious, and include whether anyone may come to the door at all.
What do you do with your phone while you are working?
Why ask it
Nobody will say they scroll all evening, so ask it as a practical matter: phone available for your calls, put away while the children are awake. Setting the expectation once is far more effective than being annoyed about it afterwards.
What is your rate, is there a minimum, and how do you want to be paid?
Why ask it
Settle this before the first evening, including whether the rate rises after midnight, whether more children costs more, and what happens if you are home late. Underpaying a good sitter is the most reliable way to lose them to another family.
What happens if you are ill or something comes up on the day?
Why ask it
You are asking how much notice you will get and whether they have anyone to suggest. A sitter who has thought about it will tell you honestly how often it has happened. This is also the moment to build a list of two or three sitters rather than one.
How late can you stay, and how do you get home?
Why ask it
A sitter waiting for a lift or an unreliable bus at midnight becomes your problem and it will end the evening awkwardly. Agree the transport and who pays for it now, and treat a hard curfew as a fixed constraint rather than something to negotiate later.
What do you want to know about my kids?
Why ask it
Handing the questioning over shows whether they are preparing or improvising. Good sitters ask about fears, routines, food, comfort objects, and what the children are like when tired. No questions at all usually means they intend to improvise, which is workable for an hour and not for an evening.
Hiring and Briefing a Sitter
Practical guidance for the conversation itself
Before the Interview
Write the household sheet first
One page: your mobile numbers, a second adult, the doctor, the address and door code, allergies and medicines with doses, bedtimes, what the children may eat, house rules, and what to do in a fire. Writing it before you interview also shows you exactly which questions you still need to ask.
Find out the going rate locally
Ask two or three other parents what they pay, and for what hours. Arriving with a number that is roughly right avoids an awkward negotiation and stops you losing a good sitter over an amount that was never the real issue.
Interview at home with the children there
Twenty minutes in your kitchen shows you more than any phone call. Watch whether they get down to the children's level, whether they speak to them rather than about them, and whether your children go quiet or open up.
Pay for a trial while you are still in the house
Book two hours with you working upstairs or in the garden. It costs very little and it is the only way to see how they handle a real refusal, a spilled drink, or a bedtime with your own routine.
During the Conversation
- Ask what they would do rather than what they believe. Scenario questions get answers you can judge; questions about philosophy get answers everyone knows how to give.
- State your rules out loud instead of asking whether they agree with them. A sitter can then say honestly if something does not suit them.
- Watch how they handle being corrected on something small during the visit. That reaction is a good preview of how a note about the evening will land.
- Ask what they will not do. Cooking, driving, dog walking, and bathing are all reasonable to decline, and knowing now is better than assuming.
- If you use cameras anywhere in the house, say so plainly at the interview. Discovering one later ends the relationship, and in some places undisclosed recording raises legal problems of its own.
Where Sitting Arrangements Go Wrong
Hiring on a recommendation alone
Another family's experience covers their children, their house, and their hours. Ask the same questions anyway, particularly about first aid and about the specific ages you have, because a sitter brilliant with a calm eight-year-old may struggle with a baby.
Leaving the medical detail verbal
Allergies, doses, and inhaler technique told at the door in a rush do not survive a stressful moment. Write them down, keep the sheet in the same place every time, and show the device rather than describing it.
Asking a young sitter to manage more than they can
A capable fourteen-year-old is not the right person for a baby with reflux, a child with seizures, or three children at bath time. The failure here is usually the parent's judgement rather than the sitter's ability, and it is foreseeable.
Coming home much later than you said
A sitter who expected to be free at eleven and gets home at one has had their evening taken, and they rarely say so. It costs you reliable people quietly. Message as soon as you know, pay the extra without being asked, and treat the agreed end time as a commitment rather than an estimate.
After the First Evening
- Ask your children what they did and how it went, without leading them. Small details, said casually, tell you most of what you need to know.
- Look at the practical evidence: was bedtime roughly kept, was the kitchen left usable, were the doors locked.
- Give one piece of feedback while it is easy to give. Small corrections early are how a good arrangement becomes a long one.
- Pay promptly and at the agreed rate, and round up when you were late. Sitters compare families to each other, and reliability runs both ways.
- Build a bench of two or three sitters. Depending on one person is how a single case of flu cancels everything you had planned.