The first step is to decide exactly what you want in a babysitter. Do you want them to take an educational, active, or creative approach to watching your kids? Perhaps you are looking for some combination of the three. Make sure you know exactly what you are looking for in a sitter before beginning the search.

The next step is to figure out where you want to look. Since you want a sitter that enjoys being active, you might want to consider asking parents you know that have kids on high school or college sports teams. Ask other members of your community or utilize people that work at the local Boys & Girls Club, YMCA, or other community center. These babysitters are familiar with helping kids stay active, and they know plenty of fun and safe activities and games.

After choosing candidates from churches, local community centers, friend referrals, and classified ads, ask for references and set up an initial interview. Find out how much experience they have, and check their references. Make sure they understand exactly what you want your children to do and eat while you are away, and ask if they are comfortable with the guidelines and responsibilities.

Set up a time for them to meet your kids and arrange for a spouse, friend, or family member to be present. See how they interact with your children, and whether they are caring and disciplined, or negligent and harsh. Offer the opportunity for them to play with your kids in a place where they are less likely to feel that they are being watched, such as the backyard or the basement. Pay attention to the kinds of activities they encourage and the way they speak to your children. Afterwards, be sure to talk to your kids about what they did, what they talked about, and most importantly, if they liked the sitter.

As long as your children are comfortable with your sitter, you are off to a good start. On their first day as babysitter, try to provide a list of fun and healthy activities and snacks. Make sure they understand that certain things such as television, soda and sugary snacks are prohibited, and let them know the laws of the land such as the requirement of finishing dinner before leaving the table. Make sure they are familiar with a few PE games and activities in order to make sure they never run out of entertainment and active options. At the end of the babysitting job, be sure to find details about exactly what they did, what your kids ate, and what time they went to bed. Make sure your children’s stories are the same, and if so, you have found a babysitter!

Amanda is a writer and blogger living in San Diego, USA. She writes on behalf of SPARK, an organization that helpes teachers and recreation leaders provide physical education to help fight child obesity.

Today you will find plenty of online babysitter services available. The good news is that they cover just about any area you can think of. They also give you the opportunity to find the one that is perfect for you. While they may all encompass the same types of services, they way in which they offer them can be very different.

It can be exhausting to search on the Internet looking into the different factors. Being able to compare some of them including sitters.com, care.com, and sitterycity.com will help you to reduce the time spent finding the perfect babysitter and more importantly finding the right fit for your needs.

Important Factors to Compare

• Membership Fees / Plans: The cost of the membership differs from one site to the next. You want to check into the prices and what all it includes. For example it can include background checks, references, video interviews, and even some online shopping mall rewards. Of course the money you pay is nothing compared to the safety of your child.

• Background Checks / Safety: When you compare babysitting websites you can find out how the background checks on employees are conducted. This is very important because you want to make sure your child is always in the best hands.

• Features / Services: You can find out what all services that an agency offers too. In addition to child care they may offer home sitting and pet sitting. If you have older children, a tutor may be something you are also interested in.

• Customer Support: What sort of support the site provides. Does it only provide email support or it provides live support.

Being able to compare babysitting websites makes it more convenient. You will get to check it all out from home when it is a good time for you. There may be a rush on your end to find a quality sitter and this method can allow you to do it. The chance to find out what other parents have to say about the different sites is a plus too. Take the time to read such reviews and you can start to narrow down your options.

For the dads out there, why not do what you can to make this Valentine’s Day as special as it can be? Hiring a babysitter is one of the key elements you need to have in place to do so. It won’t matter how great the rest of your plans are if you don’t have someone to watch the kids. Keep in mind that your wife isn’t going to leave them with just anyone!

Careful planning is what it all comes down to. Chances are your friends and family members already have their Valentine’s Day plans in  place. Therefore they are out of the question when it comes to providing childcare services on your behalf that night. The solution? Consider hiring a babysitting service.

You can find plenty of them online that are willing to work on such holidays. In fact, this could be the start of you  using them on a regular basis to go on regular dates with your wife. The online babysitting service you hire will be able to offer you references and to verify that a complete background check has been done.

Once you have that taken care of you can start focusing your attention on something else for the evening. Make reservations at a wonderful restaurant and get tickets to a play or a show she would love to see. You can even consider going somewhere romantic where the two of you can spend some time talking afterwards. The idea is to make the evening special for her – and she doesn’t have to take care of any of the details.

Your wife is going to appreciate all of the effort you have put into a romantic Valentine’s Day event. Let her know well in advance that you have special plans for the evening. Let her know you have taken care of everything so she can just focus on deciding what to wear. The anticipation of some time alone with you that is a secret will be very exciting for her.

Care provider profiles include background checks, pictures, references, reviews, a four-step screening process and  a specialized matching technology to help select the right care provider.  Sittercity.com doesn’t employ the care providers.  It is the nation’s largest and most trusted online source that simply helps match them with families.

The one-year contract covers Active-duty Army, Navy, Air Force and Marine Corps members and their families, as well as National Guard and reserve members and their families.

Sitters.com is one of the largest sources of up to date care providers.

They offer comprehensive care provider profiles with references, reviews, ratings, photos, videos, availability schedules, training and certifications to make search for a care provider  quick, simple and safe.

Parenting magazine rated sitters.com as one of the safest online sites for finding care providers due to its thorough selection process.  Each profile and job posting is reviewed by a member of the All Mom Team and includes a link to the bio of the Mom that completed the review.

In addition, members can check out background checks, online reviews and ratings posted by other members of Sitters.com as well as talk to references before contacting the care provides.

Features which distinguish sitters.com from their competitors:

• Focus on having the most up-to-date  care providers: people actively looking to provide care today rather than claiming to have “hundreds of thousands” of  providers

• Phone Support available 24 hours a day, including weekends and holidays

• All-Mom Editorial Team: team of moms that are dedicated to keeping the Sitters.com community safe and secure.  Every Mom on the team has at least a Bachelor’s Degree and 5 years of corporate business experience.

Best of all, it doesn’t cost anything to check out the value Sitters.com offers. You can search for care providers and also create a trial membership for free.

For paid members, Sitters.com comes with a money-back guarantee. If you post a job and don’t get at least three applicants in three days, you will get a full refund.

In addition to they monthly and yearly plans, they now offer 14 day free trial:

• Post your job and get contacted by caregivers in your area
• Preview Available Caregivers
• Post a Profile for Caregivers to view detailing your needs, hours and more
• Access detailed characteristics with pictures, experience, availability and more
• Access Online References and Background Check

Families looking for babysitters, petsitters, elderly care, housekeepers and all providers on Care4hire can not only do a free search but also get a free trial where they can post their open job.

Sign up for a free 14 day trial!.

You can try it out for a week at no cost, and then choose either a monthly or annual fee plan. Save 15% on registration with promo code SAVE15