Teen babysitters
Parents of teens: do teens still babysit? Is this still a thing?
I would love to find a high school student or similar who'd be available to occasionally hang out with my preschooler and/or baby on evenings and weekends. We don't know families with interested teens and when I'm looking for sitters on BPN, urbansitter, etc. I pretty much exclusively find adults. My daughter loves hanging out with older kids/teens and my hope is that this could be pretty fun for everyone, as it was for me when I was in high school.
Appreciate any suggestions for where to look. Alternatively, if you are the parent of a a responsible teen who would enjoy this work please message me.
This could be actual babysitting, but sometimes I just need a more grown person to play a game with the 3 year old while I do chores etc. We of course would pay them, even if I'm in the house too. We live in Thousand Oaks.
Parent Replies
Hi! I have only hired an adult babysitter but I do occasionally see the old fashioned paper flyer up for teen babysitters. I remember seeing one not long ago at Coffee Conscious on Gilman. I might also recommend posting on NextDoor, where I’ve had luck finding people of various ages interested in babysitting.
Ooh, I'm so excited to have an answer to this question.
The babysitting JACKPOT is places where very responsible teenage girls hang out. I discovered my neighborhood ballet studio, for instance, is full of responsible 15-year-olds who are focused enough to study ballet a few times a week. And if you're a 15-year-old who wants to do ballet a few times a week, that's gonna add up for your parents. I suggest finding a nearby organized sport facility and calling and asking if they know of anyone. It's been a game changer for us!
A service we've had success with that has high school students is FindSparrow. This site also has university and college level students. People we've found on this site for caregiving have been dependable, kind, warm, careful, and responsive. https://www.findsparrow.com
We've also had some success finding high school students through NextDoor. There is a "Parents, Nannies, Babysitters" group for East Bay.
My kids are older (5 and 7) and have bonded with various teen "counselors in training" from their daytime summer camps. We have ended up working with a couple as babysitters. I'm not sure how you would access them but there are lots of teens who work as counselors at summer camps.