Baby Sitting World

I was checking out a couple of online babysitting services the other day and I noticed something that I thought was interesting.  First of all, most babysitters posted a picture of themselves (this is a really good idea) but some only posted a profile.  Even though everybody knows that “you can’t judge a book by its cover” people still want to see a face when searching for a child care provider.  Personally, I would look at all the sitters with photos first and would only look at the profiles without photos if I couldn’t find the type of sitter I was looking for in the group with photos.

Next, if you do plan on posting a photo with your profile on an online babysitting service’s website, please post an appropriate photo.  Many of the photos I saw were great.  They were photos of the babysitter smiling and usually holding a child.  Those photos to me said, “Hi, I babysit and I love it!”  This is the message you want to send. 

 Then I came across a photo with two girls in it.  The first problem was that you couldn’t tell from the photo which one was the babysitter described in the profile.  The second problem was that the girls in the picture were making faces trying to look cool, sexy, or whatever, and holding up their fingers giving the peace sign.  The photo appeared to have been from someone’s profile on a social networking site.  Attention Babysitters – this is NOT the type of photo you want to post on a babysitting services website.

While I was on these sites, I checked out the “Pet Sitter” sections.  I found it strange that there appeared to be a large number of teenage looking mothers on these sites wanting to find work as pet sitters.  I thought to myself, “why are these young girls posting photos of themselves with their babies on their profiles?  Could it be that they are trying to show that they have a child so if they are capable of caring for a child then they can certainly take care of your pet?  Could it be that they hope people will hire them figuring they really need the money because they have a baby to support?”   

It wasn’t until several hours later when I was still running it through my head that I figured it out.  These girls were babysitters and just used the same photo on their pet sitting profile as they did on their babysitting profile.  Attention Babysitters:  don’t do this!  If the site allows you to upload a different photo with each profile whether it is for babysitting, pet sitting, tutoring, or elder care, take advantage and use different photos.  If it is a tutoring profile you’ve posted, you might want to post either just a picture of yourself or a picture of you tutoring a school-aged child.  For pet sitting, again you can post a picture of just yourself, or a picture of you holding a puppy, having a dog give you his paw, you with a bird sitting on your shoulder, etc.   You get the idea!

If you don’t have the time to upload several different pictures, one for each profile, then use one photo for all of them but it should be a photo of  just you, preferably a head shot, smiling, and in focus.  Take a good look at your picture before you post it and be sure it is sending the message you meant to send!

Wishing you the best of luck!

Lisa McLellan, Child Care Expert