Running around after kids can burn pounds like nothin' else...

Johanna House, winner of the 2004 America’s Next Top Model, was a 23-year-old babysitter from Jackson Mississippi when she won her model status. Formerly obese, House slimmed down fifty pounds during her full-time babysitting job before entering the lineup of girls for the 2004 Top Model show. When she won, supermodel Tyra Banks told the fashion industry to watch out because House was going to “rock their world.”

Have you ever heard of a babysitter losing weight on the job, or achieving some other life goal while working as a sitter? Share!

Photo Credit: Google Images

Ironically, one of the most frequent questions we get at Sittercity is, “Am I asking the right interview questions?”

When hiring a sitter, parents will often conduct an interview. Methods of interviewing vary widely from parent to parent. Some parents set up a phone call and some meet with the sitter in a local Starbucks. Regardless of which style fits you, you should make sure you’re asking the most critical questions before the sitter is left alone for their first job.

Here’s Sittercity’s list of the top three most important interview questions to ask:

1. Do you know CPR, First Aid and the Heimlich maneuver?
Don’t assume that your sitter knows this–ask! If you find out that they are certified, ask to see their certification. If they are not certified or can’t produce a certificate, consider sending them to a local class. The American Red Cross in Chicago offers local classes for just $50. (https://www.redcrossonlinetraining.org/Distance/Default.aspx?CID=53)

2. What is your previous experience?
Your sitter might have been a mother’s helper in the past, a nanny, or even an au pair. It’s key to ask your sitter what she’s done previously to understand what she is capable of while she is working for you.

3. What are your theories on discipline?
A caregiver’s job is to care for children by following the same family rules that Mom and Dad implement in order to keep the consistency. Different families have different rules, so it’s important to choose a babysitter or nanny that is able to adapt.

To read more interview questions visit our Interview Checklist at Sittercity.com.

Photo Credit: MSNBC

Have triplets? This might be the job for you.

Moms–are you expecting twins, triplets or more?  If yes, and you are delivering between November 2009 and February 2010, True Entertainment wants to hear from you.  See their listing below:

ARE YOU EXPECTING TWINS, TRIPLETS OR MORE?

If you answered YES and are delivering between November 2009 and February 2010, we want to hear from you!

We are interested in passionate, high-energy expecting parents for a national television show that will document the birth and first weeks of your newborns’ lives. We believe our show will be a great resource for expecting parents across the country to see families experience the joys and trials of multiples.

If you are interested, please email ”multiplescasting@gmail.com“ with your name, location, and due date in the subject line, and a little about your story. We look forward to hearing from you!

Rockers are sitters, too.

Singer Stephen Medd, an early influence on grunge singer April Lavigne, described her not only as a singer with promise but a great babysitter. “She babysat both my kids.” Medd said. “They will say to this day that she is the best babysitter we ever had.” Speaking of Lavigne, her former babysitter once called into Bellevue, WA radio station 97.1 FM at one point to request her song “Complicated,” and to reminisce about the singer, stating that “even back when Avril was a kid, she knew that she was something special.”

Do you think that a rock/grunge singer can also make a good babysitter?

Photo credit: Timeinc.net

Hmmm...we want to hear the one about Dan, too!

Happy Halloween, everyone! In the Sittercity.com office, we can’t pass up a good babysitting urban legend. We started collecting them in 2004 when a power outage in our office had us sitting in our office kitchen, reminiscing about babysitting jobs of old. Urban legends are often meant to impart a moral, however insignificant, to the masses. Babysitting urban legends got started in the 1970’s, most often being imparted with wide eyes from one disbelieving sorority girl to another, preferably on the train or subway when everyone else could hear. What are most fascinating are the morals underneath these stories. Meant to impart a fiendish lesson to parents and babysitters, these tales contain laughably disastrous effects for small infractions, or something no infraction at all. If you’ve never heard a babysitting urban legend, let me tell you the one where…

No Laughing Matter

1. The babysitter is weirded out by a clown figurine in the children’s bedroom. Later, the mother calls and she mentions that she put a sheet over its head because it made her feel odd. The mother yells for her to take the kids to a neighbors, and that her children have never had a clown doll. The clown is caught trying to escape on the back lawn.

Moral: Try this with a Brad Pitt figurine in your own room and see what happens…

Hippie for Hire

2. A babysitter taking some…ahem…illegal substances on the job accidentally places the baby in the oven and the turkey in bed, then tells the parents later that dinner is ready, effectively frying her job prospects for the rest of her life…

Moral: If your babysitter’s skirt has more than three colors, don’t hire her.

Frank the Prank

3. A babysitter answers the phone to hear a man laughing hysterically and then a voice saying, “I’m upstairs with the children, you’d better come up.” Thinking it’s a prank call, she slams down the phone, only to get the same call again and again. She consults an operator, who tells her to try and keep him on the line. The babysitter does this during the next call, but fails. Finally, the operator calls and says “get out of the house, the man is on the extension. The babysitter flees, and the police find that she was next in a string of grisly murders.

Moral: spoil your local operator. Send them chocolate.

A Total Gas

4. One babysitter on the subway confides to another that she always has trouble getting little junior to sleep. The other babysitter says “No problem, I just take them into the kitchen and give them a little bit of gas from the oven and they always go out like a light…”

Moral: Don’t listen to people on the subway. It only leads to life complications.

People Can Lick Too

5. A young girl comes home and jumps on her computer. She chats to a friend and is more than happy to confide in her, openly telling her that she has the house to herself for the evening. Her parents go out for dinner and her sister sneakily goes out also, without babysitting her younger sister like she’s asked to. The young girl has a shower, then lays on her bed and hangs her hand down the side of the bed and her dog licks it. Knowing it’s okay with the dog there, she goes to sleep. A few hours later she is awakened by a noise. She goes downstairs to investigate but finds nothing. She then wanders back upstairs, climbs into bed, and flings her hand down again to feel a wet tongue on her fingers once more. At this point, she glances in the mirror and sees the words “People can lick too” written across it. Also, in the reflection she sees a man, licking her fingers, with the decapitated dog on the floor next to him.

Moral: Don’t let a dog lick your hand for hours. That is totally gross.

Captain Hook

6. A crazy lunatic escaped from a nearby lunatic asylum with a hook for a hand rips off urban legend #2, above, but this time also scrapes the walls, carpet, and anything else he can find to leave his mark behind…

Moral: For that ripped wallpaper look, call Captain Hook Buggy Baby Bumper Babysitting Service.

The Vicious Cycle

7. The crazy lunatic from Urban Legend #6 originally does an Urban Legend #3 on her, killing all the kids in her care, then holds a grudge against her for getting away and returns later to do it all again, this time with the babysitter’s own kids…

Moral: Die the first time, would ya?

Bing! Next?

8. While a girl is babysitting the phone rings. She’s watching TV and so she just hangs up in annoyance when she hears heavy breathing. It rings again, this time she hears the kids. She heads all over the house looking for them, but all she can find is a pair of abandoned PJ’s. The phone rings again, and the caller says “you’re next,” then laughs maniacally. When the parents get home all they find of the babysitter is the phone hanging off the hook.

Moral: When babysitting, never answer the phone. Just imagine how frustrated your killer will be.

Home Alone

9. A young couple is racing out the door to the airport, late for their flight to Bali. As they were leaving the babysitter still had not come, so they telephones her and told her the baby was in his highchair and waiting for her. Then they left. When the babysitter arrives, the door is blown shut and locked. She thinks that the parents have made other arrangements, and so she leaves. When the parents get back, they realize the baby is still in his highchair.

Moral: As parents you deserve no enjoyment of life whatsoever. Give up now and never plan another vacation again.

Photo credit: Photoshoptalent.com

That's one busy fridge. Help it get more organized.

You know that thing that you stick on your fridge? The thing that has all the emergency numbers on it should the sitter need help? Oh yeah, and your cell phone? And oh, wait, maybe the kids allergies? And hmmm…shouldn’t it include their medicines?

Sometimes in life it’s great to have a guide.

Enter Sittercity.com’s Babysitter Cheat Sheet–an online, interactive form you can fill out and stick on the fridge that walks you through all those tricky little things you need to know about when you leave your sitter with the kids. From safety phone lines to child information to dietary procedures, it’s comprehensive, easy-to-use and best of all, free!

That’s some staying…or should we say sticking…power.

Photo credit: mashable.com

Sittercity had a whirlwind of a day Friday when Senator Dick Durbin came by the office to hold a press conference regarding small businesses and credit. We were thrilled to host the event and hear the exciting discussion.

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Discipline can be a tricky subject.

Different families have different discipline preferences — but not all of them are appropriate for sitters. Spanking, for example, should never be implemented by a caregiver, even if it is the family’s preferred method of discipline. Instead, use this list of Sittercity.com common discipline tactics and consequences as a guide to the best approach your caregiver can take.

Logical Consequences
Consequences that are controlled/engineered by a babysitter or parent
Example: If a child runs into the street, he is no longer allowed to play outside.

Tips: The sitter should be able to remain calm, but state the consequences firmly. She also must be prepared to follow through on the consequences immediately.

Withholding Privileges
Telling the child that he will have to give up something he likes as a consequence of his actions
Example: If a child keeps throwing toys at the TV, he is not allowed to watch his favorite show that day.

Tips: Tell caregiver not to take away something the child actually needs (like a meal) and to also make sure this consequence is implemented immediately after the bad behavior.

Time-Outs
Isolating the child for a certain period of time as punishment for bad behavior
Example: Asking the child to go to their room for ten minutes if they’ve done something they know is wrong.

Tips: Be specific! Tell the caregiver to give the child a time-out period of 1 minute for each year of his age. (So, a 4-year-old would have a four-minute time-out.)

Photo credit: Getty Images

You’d be surprised how many common household products contain ingredients that are considered to be toxic to humans or possible carcinogens. But who has the time to do a biological research study on every potential product purchase?

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Oompa Loompas had nothing on Charlie when it came to babysitting.

Peter Ostrum, the child actor who played Charlie Bucket in Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory, was widely considered a great babysitter in his neighborhood before starring in Willy Wonka and eventually becoming a veterinarian.

What other child actors do you know that were also great babysitters? And who wishes that they lived next to Julie Andrews when she was young? (We’ll tell you one thing—anyone that used to have our CEO and Founder Genevieve Thiers as a babysitter is pretty smug now…)

Photo Credit: Google Images

While browsing through some babysitting jobs the other day, we came across a post that specifically stated a preference for “a younger sitter.”

As you’re well aware, Sittercity only features sitters who are 18 and older, so it’s not like this parent was looking for a preteen, but he definitely wanted someone who had just completed high school.

Which begs the question… why? And is this a common thing?

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Little Eva

Little Eva, the singer to first introduce the song “The Locomotion” in the 1960’s, was asked to record the hit song while playing around musically with a piano during a babysitting job for songwriters Carole King and Gerry Goffin. Babysitting can take you places!

Have you heard of any other famous sitters who got their career started on a babysitting job?

Photo Credit: Google Images

We came across a recent article titled “Nanny Positions Requiring College Degrees” which focused on this growing trend and argued against why an education is necessary when caring for children.

Said the mom who wrote the article: “While earning a college degree is a major accomplishment it doesn’t mean you know squat about parenting or caring for kids. As a working single mom, I relied heavily on nannies and babysitters when my daughter was much younger. The nanny my daughter loved the most was a high school dropout with three grown kids. She cared for my daughter for two straight years until it was time for her to start pre-school. She was loving, playful and creative. But she was also stern, disciplined, and organized. She knew my daughter so well she called my attention to things her pediatrician missed. When I panicked about certain behavior, she was able to tell me from her own parenting experience, not to worry, it was a phase. And she was flexible, which was a big plus in my line of work.”

When we asked our blog readers what their most important caregiving quality was, education never even came up.

You guys cited work ethic, flexibility, communication, patience — never “a college degree.”

Does that mean it’s unimportant? Or that it’s simply not as important as some of these other qualities? Sittercity parents, would you ever consider hiring a caregiver who didn’t have a college degree? Why or why not?

Sitters, what do you think? Is a degree important? Do you think you’ve even been turned down for a job because you don’t have a degree?

Photo Credit: Google Images

Lisa Marie Presley with Twins

Star Lisa Marie Presley is in the spotlight, but not for a good reason.  She’s facing legal action from her $650 a day nanny, Christine White.

Why?

Christine White the main caregiver for Presley’s 10-month-old twin daughters, Finley and Harper, is claiming that she’s been forced to work seven-day-weeks without any overtime pay, meal breaks, or even a few moments of rest.   While the Lisa Marie Presley example is the extreme and Mrs. White may have exaggerated her situation, it is important to make sure that you don’t overwork your nanny. Here are a few tips to help you maintain a successful relationship with your nanny.

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August is here and, if the moping and sighing is any indication, your kids have noticed that it’s back-to-school time.

Because you’ve got enough on your plate, we’ve put together a series of back-to-school tips and articles designed to make your back-to-school season run a little more smoothly.

So take a look through these back-to-school tips and get geared up for a great school year!

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Legendary film writer and director John Hughes passed away yesterday at the age of 59 from a heart attack.

EVERYONE knows his iconic films of the 80s, regardless of what decade you were born in.

To pay homage to this incredible writer and director, we put together a list of surprise babysitters in John Hughes movies.

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It’s one of those parenting milestones, one you don’t forget (as much as you may try). The day your child utters his first curse word, everything stops.

WHAT did he say?

Where could he have picked that up?

What should I do about it?

How you choose to combat curse words may vary depending on your child’s age, but here are four different options that other parents have used to keep swear words out of their kids’ vocabulary.

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Soooo, this is a little creepy.

While babysitting her niece last week, a sitter named Kasey snapped a quick cell phone image of the child. Behind the little girl appeared an older woman’s face — even though Kasey and her niece were completely alone in the house at the time.

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When the first day of school rolls around, the house is often in a state of pure chaos. Kids are running around, lunches are being packed, the clock keeps ticking away and the air is filled with nervous energy.

So why not capture all of that emotion with the time-honored tradition of first day of school photos?

Instead of adding “frantic photographer” to your parental role on the first day of school, read through these quick tips to not just help the morning run smoothly, but also to take some stunning first day of school photos.

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As any summer nanny knows, late July is around the time where the kids are starting to get bored with the usual summer activities. If you’re finding yourself in the same situation (bored kids, tired mind), we’d like to suggest a simple summer idea to keep things fresh and fun:

Have a summer picnic!

Rather than just eating at the table in the kitchen, make lunch time more exciting by packing up the kids and heading out for a nice, late summer outing. To make sure you’ve got everything to need to make the picnic a success, read on and follow our quick tips.

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In case you missed it, Sittercity’s founder and CEO Genevieve Thiers was on the TODAY show this morning talking about her favorite sitter-friendly summer products.

Take a look at her appearance below!

Can’t see the video?

Click here to view.

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