Babysitting Ideas : Babysitting Tips on Roles and Responsibility

April 12, 2009 | By Admin In Babysitting Tips |

There’s a very fine line that a babysitting needs to walk in order to distinguish between the roles and responsibility of a babysitter and that of a houseworker. It is important to identify your role and responsibilities. A babysitter’s primary responsibility is to the child, but there are other additional duties, which come along with. Here are a few babysitting ideas on the additional responsibility:

Picking up the toys after a child is finished playing with them (or ensuring that the child does it).
Changing a wet sheet with a dry one before a child goes to sleep.
Feeding meal and cleaning the dishes that were used.
Helping potty train a child.

There are duties that do not come along with a babysitter job and a babysitter has the right to refuse them or accept them at an additional cost. Few of such responsibilities could be:

Vacuuming the house
Tutoring the child
Doing family laundry
Stripping beds and making them.
Washing dishes

Recommended link:

Watching a child is a full time job and you even if you are paid extra money for an additional responsibility, you need to think twice before accepting the same. Remember that babysitting is your primary job and any additional work, which may distract you from doing the babysitting job may not be acceptable.

Clients or parents ususally confuse responsibility with dependability. Dependability means that you use common sense and can be trusted to do a good job. Responsibility often means extra work. When more work makes you feel as though you’ve been taken advantage of, it’s easy to become resentful. Before landing a babysitting job, find out whether your role is strictly child care. Decide what level of responsibility is acceptable to you. If your client crosses the line of acceptability, discuss the problem right away without any delay. A responsible parent would accept your ability to speak up and establish limits. Most parents are aware that people have limitations and their priority is quality care for their children.