Babysitting a kid is a great life experience with its share of fun and challenges. Not only is it the perfect job when you’re a student, but it is also a good way to develop certain precious skills you’ll need throughout your life, both on personal and professional levels. You don’t believe us? Well...here are 5 soft skills you will definitely acquire thanks to babysitting.
Creativity
Babysitting does not only consist in keeping an eye on children. You will also have to entertain them. Because, believe us or not, there is nothing worse than a bored kid. So it is better that you overflow with ideas of fun activities to do, without spending extra money on sophisticated material or resources.
This imperative will force you to be more creative at every babysitting session. You will learn to think of activities which are adapted to your kids’ passions and interests. For example, why don’t you organize a personalized treasure hunt at home ? Suggest themed drawings for each session or just create a fun choreography with the kids?
At Mômji, we help our babysitters in finding fun games to do with kids. Each month, we send them tutorial videos with ideas of activities.
Patience and problem-solving skills
Patience. The Golden one. If you think babysitting kids is an easy task, think again. As a babysitter, it is most likely that you will have to handle tenuous situations like tantrums and - if you’re lucky enough to babysit siblings, break up fights between them. The daily routine. This will definitely test your patience and teach you how to handle crisis situations in a very pedagogical way. The perfect introduction to parenthood.
Communication skills
In your everyday life, it is important that you adapt your communication skills to the people that you are interacting with. Babysitting will teach you this precious skill. You will learn how to adjust yourself to the kid’s understanding of his surroundings and interact with him accordingly.
For instance, let’s say that the child you babysit wants to do something you know his parents usually forbid him to do. It is important that you remain pedagogical and constructive if you want to make yourself heard efficiently.
Plus, communication is obviously necessary if you want to enjoy a great babysitting experience. It will help you create a good relationship with the kids you babysit as well as their parents.
Organizational skills
Babysitting children requires that you organize yourself and reconcile your personal schedule and your working-hours very well.
For instance, it is important that you be on time for each session; especially if you must pick up kids at school and go with them to their out-of-school activities.
To avoid being easily overwhelmed, plan everything in advance. Your next babysitting session is in a few days? Start already thinking about the cool activities you want to do with the kids and collect all the colored pencils, felt pens, papers, and scissors you will need!
Or you know you won’t be available for the next session? Don’t wait last minute to let the parents know.
Organization and good time-management are thus important if you want to be seen as a reliable person.
Responsability
Responsibility is a great soft skill to gain from babysitting, especially for teenagers who take their first steps into the professional world.
Aside from the fun activities, babysitting mostly implies that babysitters are responsible for the kid’s safety and well-being during their working hours. They are thus accountable to their parents. This situation puts them in a serious position that should not be taken lightly.
Therefore, it is very important to develop a good relationship with the parents. What you can do at the end of every babysitting session is to describe to them how the day went, what activities you did with the kids or if there was any problem. Remain as transparent as possible.
Find English-speaking jobs in Paris as a nanny
We convinced you and you feel ready to be the super babysitter you were always meant to be? Join the Mômji community now! We have thousands of nanny jobs for english-speakers in Paris and babysitting jobs in Paris.
