Finding a babysitter

Prior to looking for a babysitter for my baby, many people told me an assortment of negative stories relating to them. It made me feel very uneasy that one of the many habits of a "bad" babysitter was to feed the child a sleeping tablet behind the parents' back, so she could get a good night's sleep.

So it seems nowadays, the reputation of babysitters is far from being a good one. One quite incredible story I heard, was of a woman who left her baby in the care of the babysitter every day whilst she went to work. Little did she know that the babysitter would take the child to the streets and go begging, until a neighbor informed her. Another frequently abused a child by smacking it and forced the child to keep quiet with verbal threats. And the stories go on.

The question is: How does one know whether they have an honest, reliable and reputable babysitter? For safety precautions one should have access to their background, where they live, etc. as well as previous experience.

I have recently hired a babysitter through a friend, and with all the luck in the world, she is first class and I never have to tell her anything twice. My friend found her from Jl. Lautze in West Jakarta. I believe it is an agent that finds them.

My only comment is anyone looking for a babysitter should go to a reputable agent (if there are any) and spend some time and have a little patience with all the formalities and information, otherwise you could end up worse off than you were before having one. And if there is no agent, be very selective with the contacts you wish to go through. Babysitters are not a dime a dozen.

C. PARRY

Jakarta