Whether you hire a babysitter or nanny to help take care of your child, or you simply enlist the help of friends and family, good communication is essential. It’s important to nurture your relationship with the caregiver; After all, they play a huge role in your child’s life.
If you feel your relationship with your child’s caregiver could be improved, here you’ll discover some top tips and advice you can follow.
Start Keeping A Journal
A really great idea is to start a journal you can share with your child’s caregiver. Now, we’re not talking about a journal full of your innermost thoughts and feelings, though you may totally find it useful to keep a journal like that just for you! The type of journal you’ll be creating to share with the caregiver, is basically more of a daily record of your child’s activities, meals and potential behavioral issues.
Updating it each night and then giving it to the caregiver the next day, ensures they stay up to date with what’s going on with your child. They can also add to the journal to let you know how your child was while they were being looked after and whether any issues need addressing.
Basically, a journal is a great way to communicate with one another, while also providing a go-to resource of useful information.
Provide Them With A Daily Sheet
While keeping and sharing a journal is great for you to communicate with the babysitter, you may also want to give them a daily sheet. This would act like a record for each child, where the babysitter can write down what happened that day and whether there is anything they’re concerned about.
Daily sheets are an especially great idea for busy families, where there’s more than one child being looked after.
Don’t Try To Micro-Manage Them
It’s tempting and natural as a parent, to try to control everything the caregiver does. However, it’s really important to give them the space and trust to care for your child in their own way.
If you’ve hired a babysitter and you’ve already trained them, step back and let them do things how they want to do them. As long as it isn’t clashing with your own parenting style, or undermining anything you’re doing, it’s perfectly fine for them to take the lead.
Trying to micro-manage your child’s caregiver is only going to lead to stress and conflict. So, respect their approach and trust that they know exactly what they’re doing. If it helps, think about when you’re at work. Do you get frustrated when someone is constantly trying to tell you how to do your job, even though you know exactly what you’re doing? Well, that’s kind of what you’re doing to your babysitter when you try to micro-manage them!
Make Sure They Feel Appreciated
If you use your child’s caregiver frequently, it’s important to ensure they feel appreciated. The more appreciated and cared for they feel, the happier they’ll be and ultimately the better job they’ll do. They won’t mind as much if you’re occasionally late for example and they’ll go above and beyond for you and your kids.
So, how can you make them feel appreciated? Well, offering perks is always a good idea. These don’t necessarily have to be paid perks, you could do simple thoughtful things such as record their favorite shows, so they can watch them while your child is sleeping for example. On their birthday, buy them a small gift and make sure you’ve got their favorite snacks in while they’re working. These little things go a long way to making them feel appreciated and welcome in the home.
Bring Up Any Issues In A Non-Confrontational Way
There’s bound to be a few issues which crop up along the way. However, it’s important to handle any conflicts and issues in a non-confrontational way. If you start placing the blame, or being snarky with the caregiver, it’s not going to go well! If you approach them in a non-confrontational way, there’s more chance they will listen to you. Open and honest communication is the key to a successful relationship with your child’s caregiver.
Similarly, it’s important to pick your battles. They may do small things which annoy you, but are they really worth bringing up? Save the real talks for when there’s bigger issues to discuss.
Respect Their Opinions
You need to remember that if you’ve hired a babysitter, they’ve likely been doing the job for years. Therefore, they’re going to have expert knowledge on solving things such as behavioral issues. Rather than dismissing any help they try to provide, respect their opinions, as well as their experience.
Of course, this doesn’t mean just because they’re experienced they know what’s best for your child. You are still the parent and have the final say in how your child is raised. However, you should always listen to their point of view and at least respect their opinion, even if you don’t agree with it.
Conclusion
Overall, communicating with your child’s caregiver is essential if you want to have the best possible relationship with them. The tips and advice above will really help you to improve communication and effectively collaborate with the caregiver on your child’s progress. Remember, they’re there to help you. The better you treat your child’s caregiver, the more helpful and valuable they will be.
Leave a Reply