In an effort to gain additional experience working with children, thinking on my feet, and needless to say, a flexible way to make some extra cash for travel, I began babysitting in New York City. My friend recommended an app called UrbanSitter. With so many job postings available, the app has adopted a swipe accept or reject feature a la Tinder. The app has been very good to me and I have found a bunch of great families through it. And even more than that, I felt that I was thrown into the ring and forced to recall every fact about child development stuffed away in a drawer in the back of my brain. In that drawer, I found a few great tips and I am here to share them with you.
1. Using expressive words
First we will start off with three year old Liam (names changed to protect the minors). I was responsible for babysitting Liam for the weekend from Friday 6pm to Sunday 6pm. It was a long weekend, to say the least, and I just want to take a moment to applaud every parent because full-time parenting takes a lot of effort. Anyway, with Liam I learned about the power of expressive words. Liam had a terrible habit of throwing tantrums and whining instead of speaking, which he was able to do in three different languages. I found myself telling Liam that I could not understand him, and instead he needed to use his expressive words; what is wrong? And just like that he reacted, and every time after that, Liam whined, bit his lip, and then explained to me what he needed or wanted to do. Not only was this trick incredibly helpful as his caretaker, but Liam’s family thought it was impressive and started implementing it into their conversations with the toddler as well. Success all around.
2. Storytime is the best bribe
I know, I know, we shouldn’t bribe children; it builds an unrealistic ideal that behaviors are rewarded. However, in this case, I think we can bend the rules just a bit. For this scenario, I was babysitting Taylor, another three year old boy. Taylor was very easy to babysit; he was well-mannered, funny, sweet, and imaginative. But, when it came to eating lunch, one of the responsibilities I was tasked with, Taylor would not want to eat. In comes story time. Every time Taylor took a bite of food, I would tell him a short story about any point in my past life (he particularly enjoyed age five). Once Taylor was done chewing the mouthful of food, he was able to share a short story with me. Taylor did not have many stories to share, of course, so he would often turn to imagination, or take another bite and ask for another story. It was a perfect solution and it, too, received parental approval.
3. Timers teach choices
Lastly, this story is with Dean, a six year old first grader that I would wake up and prep for school. As you may have guessed, getting a child ready for school in time to the catch the train and before the cafeteria doors closed, was an endeavor that required a lot of planning and sternness. Since Dean was allowed to play on his iPad before school, we came up with a plan to start a timer from the moment I arrived. Dylan would decide how long he would want to play on the iPad or what time he wanted to head to school (sometimes the playground with friends trumped games at home), and we would adjust the clock accordingly. If Dean ate, brushed his teeth, and got dressed before the timer went off, he was allowed to play. Some days, it worked, and others he would rush once the timer went off to salvage at least five minutes before school, but overall it accomplished the goal – we made it to school on time every day.
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