Vacationing with children in tow should no longer be a reason for those worry lines on your brow. Let this AptParenting article help you with tips that tell you how to find a babysitter while traveling so that you and your kid can enjoy the vacation together.
Just a Click Away!
Go to authentic websites like Sittercity, Care, and Babysitters4hire that ask for your requirements and expectations of a babysitter, and provide you with a plethora of choices and options to choose from.
Often, families traveling with kids alter their itinerary and plans just because their kids are too young to tag along to all places. This limits the opportunities of exploring a vacation destination to its fullest or enjoying it to the hilt. In such cases, the presence of a babysitter can make things easier and less stressful. Traveling with kids brings immense joy and creates wonderful memories that will be cherished for a lifetime. But, it is not always hunky-dory and can get messy sometimes, what with the nappies, food, unfamiliar surroundings, and topsy-turvy timetables. Hiring an experienced babysitter, who is familiar with such situations and an expert at handling them, is your best bet to steer clear of these vacation-spoilers. This AptParenting article gives you a few pointers on how to find a babysitter while traveling or while you are on vacation. Make a mental note.
Options to Consider
Childcare at The Resort you are Staying At
Ask for the availability of this service at the resort while you make reservations. Several hotels and resorts generally have the facility of an in-house childcare system which provides prescreened babysitting services. These hotels and resorts employ a thorough prescreening process, since their reputation is on the line. Also, they swear by their motto to serve their customers with nothing but the best of everything. So, you should have no qualms about leaving your child in the hotel’s childcare for a few hours, while you enjoy a quiet dinner with your better half.
Recommendations By The Hotel Concierge
If the resort where you are staying doesn’t have a childcare facility, talking to the hotel’s concierge should help you out. The hotel concierge is a person familiar with the surroundings, and he can make trustful and accurate recommendations. It may so happen that due to liability concerns, the concierge might hesitate to recommend a babysitter. At such times, make it clear to the concierge that the recommendation would be his, but the decision would be entirely yours.
Internet Services and Online Babysitting Websites
This time around you need to do the research and homework. Many websites on the Internet like Sittercity, Babysitters4hire, and Care have been in this business for a long time. These websites are great in a way that they ask you for your requirements and expectations of a babysitter, and based on them, provide you with a huge range of babysitters that you can select from. Narrow down your choices, arrange a meeting, check your suitability, and hire a babysitter. With the Internet, nothing’s out of reach.
Social Networking To The Rescue
It is at times like these that you realize social networking not only helps you to stay in touch with the rest of the world, but also can be used for other purposes, like advertising your need of a babysitter. Putting up your requirement in a few simple sentences, for all your acquaintances and followers to see, can potentially invite some positive and useful responses and recommendations.
Personal Recommendations
If you are traveling to a place where you have friends, relatives, or acquaintances, a personal note of recommendation from their side can work wonders for you. Since they have a fair and better understanding of their locality and its people, their advice about a particular babysitter could be your safest and surest bet. Personal recommendations could also include online services used by your family and friends.
Bringing The Local Nanny Along
If everything fails, or if you are too pensive and unsure of hiring a babysitter in unfamiliar lands, it is recommended that you ask your resident nanny or babysitter to tag along. This becomes a win-win situation for everybody, though you might have some more expenses to incur. You don’t have to go through different rounds of screening and interviewing babysitters, the nanny is already familiar with the likes, dislikes, daily routine, and behavior of your kid, and she gets to travel too.
Trusting your baby’s care and safety with someone else is one of the hardest thing to do, be it your relatives or the babysitter. In case of the babysitter, issues of trust, discipline, and full-fledged care need to be handled with utmost responsibility and obligation by both, the parents and the babysitter. Swear by these fundamentals when you are hiring a babysitter for your precious little bundle of joy.
Tips To Select The Best Babysitter For Your Kid
√ Ensure that the prospective candidate has gone through a comprehensive screening process.
√ Observe the interaction and comfort level shared by the babysitter and your child.
√ Look for qualities like maturity and responsibility in the babysitter.
√ Ask for at least three references/letters of recommendations.
√ Always run a background check on the babysitter.
Research and make an informed decision while finding a babysitter. Your child’s safety is on the line and thus, nothing should be left to the last minute where things may not work out perfectly.