There are many things that should be taken into consideration when it comes to hiring a nanny or sitter well before you start the process. Here’s what Jada Rashawn, experienced Sittercity nanny and family consultant, thinks are the 3 most important things.
1. How To Find A Nanny/Sitter
First things first: decide how you want to look for your child care help.
Will you hire an agency to help?
Will you ask around to all of your friends for recommendations?
Will you search independently with the help of a reputable and affordable online service like Sittercity?
Sittercity’s search experience allows you to narrow your results based on specific needs. You can filter by:
- Date
- Time
- Location
- Hourly Rate
- Years of Experience
- Whether the Sitter Has a Car
2. Your Budget
Next, you need to know what your budget for child care is. If you know you only have so many funds to utilize for child care, then set up a plan to help ensure that you don’t go over.
Decide what your monthly budget for child care is and then do the math.
- How many regular hours do you need?
- Can you imagine any situations in which those hours increase or decrease on a week-to-week basis?
- What about occasional date nights?
When you factor in all of these needs, make sure you have wiggle room each month for those unexpected hours and factor in the market rate in your area.
Sittercity has partnered with a wonderful payroll service to further assist you in this area as well!
3. What Kind of Help You Need
What kinds of tasks are you hoping your sitter can help with? Each family has different expectations of their sitter’s responsibilities, so spend extra time making a list of child care needs for your family.
For example:
Would you like your sitter to help out with light chores around the house like laundry or meals?
Do you want your sitter to drive your children to after-school activities or coordinate playdates?
Be as clear and descriptive as possible about sitter expectations when posting a job on Sittercity. Ultimately, finding the right sitter or nanny requires you to consider you need before you begin the search!
