Make Good Money Baby Sitting

Author: C.L. Hendricks

It is entirely possible to make good money baby sitting these days. Unlike when I was a baby sitter, earning $1 an hour, baby sitters can earn anywhere from $5 to $20 an hour depending on where you live. However, just saying you are a baby sitter won’t get you the big bucks.

These days, parents are more sophisticated and have learned to be wary about hiring just anybody to care for their children. It is not uncommon for parents to run background checks, complete with fingerprints, before opening their home to a complete stranger.

Therefore, anyone who thinks they want to be a baby sitter must do their homework to gain the skills necessary to get them the job. Just having experience taking care of your younger siblings is no longer enough to allow you to make good money baby sitting.

Here are the basic requirements each baby sitter is expected to have or be: patient, responsible, mature, trustworthy and reliable. Any candidate should have some experience caring for children, preferably the same age as the children one would be caring for. A baby sitter must also respect the parents’ instructions and wishes.

If you enjoy children and have the qualities mentioned above, you might be able to get a baby sitting job. However, to make good money baby sitting, you have to offer parents more than just, “Oh, I love kids!” In this day and age, you must have qualifications and training that put you above the average $5 an hour baby sitter.

To make good money baby sitting follow these guidelines:

* Take a certified baby sitting course, often offered by your school or local community youth center. Get that certificate!

* Take a CPR course at your local Red Cross or YMCA

* Get some first aid training

* Know the number of the poison control center

* Be clean and neat, avoiding edgy or controversial clothing

* Always be punctual. Treat this as a real job. It is.

* Try volunteering at a local day care center or at your church’s nursery to gain that experience and get recommendations.

* Provide a list of references with phone numbers

* Never invite your friends to visit you when you are baby sitting!

When interviewing for a job, suggest a “dinner” sitting date, where you take care of the children in one part of the house, while the parents have dinner in another part of the house. This allows them an opportunity to observe, from a distance, how you interact with the children and how they respond to you.

If you follow these guidelines, it is very possible that you can make good money baby sitting. In some areas, the going rate for a good sitter is $8 an hour.
In other areas, a qualified, experienced baby sitter can earn upwards of $20 an hour. Following the guidelines above will help increase your income as you become the baby sitter that everyone wants to hire.

About the Author:

C.L. Hendricks is a "jill-of-all-trades" and an expert in some. She writes on a variety of subjects for several websites, including InvitingSmiles and Survival Homestead, to name a few.

Article Source: http://www.articlesbase.com/home-business-articles/make-good-money-baby-sitting-492285.html