Just when you get into the rhythm of summer it ends. How do you feel about that? I will say as a babysitter agency it is a time of roll down chaos. Parents have finally settled into summer and have drifted into a false sense of security when: WHAMO! They finally wake from their stupor and realize OMG, they need babysitters for after school pickups, drop-offs, and care for their kids after school in a week! No longer camps and vacation to occupy the kids; now it is real life, and it has set-in in a hurry! Oh my gosh we don’t have anyone to help us with our kids! What do we do, the struggle to find someone is real!
Trust me when I say I know that stress of finding people to take care of your children. I do it year round, and I’m shocked about the liaise fare attitude babysitters have about the job of babysitting. If I were a parent finding a babysitter I would definitely loose my mind. Heck, I do. The very worst part of my job and time consuming task is recruiting. Here is a list of encounters that leave me so frustrated, and I’m sure you can relate:
- Late
- No show, no call
- Can’t be bothered with coming prepared with a resume and references
- Come sloppily dressed
- My favorite is when they come they are dressed in shorty shorts that are basically denim underwear! (how on earth are these comfortable?) I mean, hello hooha, and ouch; not to mention that I would never have you babysit like that so why would I hire you dressed like that?
- I spend money for the reference check and background check, and then they never take a position even though during the interview they really “want to work” (waste of my time and money).
- They come to the interview with a friend (this is ridiculous. Who does this? I knew not to do this when I was what; twelve?)
- They say such things like what’s the big deal? Why do I have to bring a resume; it’s just babysitting. I then, want to say sarcastically: “wow you seem great. You’re hired on the spot. Obviously having a person’s life in your hands is of upmost importance to you. (see the eye roll).
- The candidate that needs to reschedule 3 times due to personal issues, and you give them the benefit of a doubt even though your intuition is screaming NO, and reschedule only to have them come late!
- Then you hire a babysitter after the excruciating search only to have them start feeling really comfortable with you, and start telling you things that you wish you had known before hiring them because had you known; you wouldn’t have hired them. Now, you have to make the decision to whether or not to put up with their craziness (after all the kids like them) or the craziness of trying to rehire
If you go through just part of this I feel your pain! This is my life at least 2 or 3 times a week on average only to hire 25% of the applicants at best. Sometimes I don’t hire anyone at all for weeks.
Take a breath of relief after the babysitter is hired, school clothes and supplies have been purchased, have a glass of wine after the kids are in bed and congratulate yourself on a job well done and school has started.
“May the force be with you” 
