I have been a babysitter for as long as a can remember but at sixteen I started minding children full time during the summer until I was eighteen and became a live-in nanny! After a few summers of experience, these are my takeaways.
Turn that Purse into a Baby Bag
As a teenager, you most likely do not just have a baby bag on hand but you can makeshift one. I used a Longchamp bag as they’re washable, rain-resistant, and can hold as much as Mary Poppin’s bag. Depending on how many children you mind and their ages will determine the contents of your bag, but carry anything to prepare for anything that could possibly go wrong. My three little girls were two, four and six so I carried diapers, a changing matt, many bottles of water, sunscreen, bug spray, Neosporin, band-aids, baby wipes, and lots of snacks. One afternoon one of the girls fell off her bike on the way to the park but I cleaned it up with a water bottle, Neosporin and a band-aid and continued our walk. Another little one then said “You’re the best babysitter because you were able to fix Ruby and we can still go to the park instead of going home,” and that’s what fills the job with love!
Have a Set Schedule
Most likely the parents will give you some sort of eating and sleeping schedule for the children with some flexibility, but if you’re with them every day I would set a strict schedule to follow by. I found what times were best for leaving for the park to have naptime and lunch at the proper time along with summer homework and pool-time and once you establish these times, you can stick to them. It’s always important to keep children on schedules.
Exhaust them!
Babysitting may just be a summer job for you and then you can enjoy your summer after you clock out and on the weekends but for the kids, you’re their entire summer! I think it’s really important to get creative every day and have as little television time as possible to establish these summertime memories for them. Some of my favorite things to do were to prebake cupcakes and bring them to decorate, have a lemonade stand, or “draw with shaving cream” outside of course!
Detail your Day
At the end of your day, fill in the parents on all the fun you had, but also anything that went wrong even if it seems small. Otherwise, you can have a child who changes up a story a little bit and without the whole knowledge, the parents may become worried.