They used to call her a nanny, but now she is better known as a baby-sitter. Essentially, it would be the same job, meaning you are referring to a person who takes care of other people’s children for work. This person can work full-time and continuously, while also performing an educational function. In this case, she is also called a nanny. But what does a baby-sitter actually do? What are the main requirements needed to be able to do it? Is there specific training or is it possible to improvise babysitting? And finally, how much does a person working in this profession cost and what are the biggest job opportunities today? Let’s clarify and slowly answer all these questions.
Further reading : How to declare a nanny?
Index
- 1 Working as a Baby Sitter: subjective and professional requirements
- 2 Baby-sitter tasks
- 3 Working as a baby-sitter: training and certifications
- 4 Working as a baby-sitter: salary and job offers
Working as a baby-sitter: subjective and professional requirements
As we have already anticipated, the baby-sitter is a highly sought-after professional personality nowadays, especially by modern parents, who are often forced to be away from home for many hours a day for work reasons. Once they took care of the children, there were grandparents, uncles, or someone from the family who could look after them. However, times have changed. Very often, parents have reservations, as entrusting children to a competent and serious person is not so easy. Babysitting is certainly not a simple job and can be done by anyone, but you must have quite significant requirements, including a lot of patience and empathy with children, even very young ones.
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So, what are the main requirements to be able to do it? This professional figure falls within the domestic work sector and specifically refers to workers who take care of children. In general, baby-sitters are tasked with supervising, guiding, and assisting other people’s children, that is, taking care of daily activities that vary depending on the age of the child being looked after. Generally, a baby-sitter takes care of:
- Child hygiene
- Preparing meals and then administering food
- Dressing the children
- Helping children with their
- tasks involving the little ones in games that can help develop their cognitive abilities and also growth
- Establishing rules, such as going to sleep at the same time.
These are all tasks that, however, require specific requirements such as empathy, patience, and precision, as well as an innate propensity towards children and, in general, their needs. Let’s see below what the main required requirements are, in order to be able to perform this profession optimally:
- A well-defined, serene, and rather calm character
- Empathy towards the world of children, even the youngest
- Being a great listener and knowing how to interpret children’s needs
- Having skills related to entertainment and play activities
- Being quite patient
- Having skills related to feeding young children
- Being aware of pediatric first aid rules.
Baby-sitter functions
The job of a baby-sitter is quite complex, more than you might think. As we have seen, the work of a baby-sitter is not just to supervise the child, so that they do not get hurt or watch television with them, and it is not just about playing. So what are the main tasks of a baby-sitter and what skills are necessary to do it? Among the main tasks, we can only mention the supervision and safety of the child. Guardians means, in one way or another, ensuring the child’s safety, both in terms of their physical and psychological integrity. The baby-sitter, therefore, in order to perform their task must be familiar with children, their needs and wants, age group by age group, but also all the physical capabilities of the children.
Baby-sitters must also take care of the feeding and daily care of the children. Thus, this professional figure must be able to prepare meals, which must be suitable for the age of the child they are caring for. Obviously, the provisions are generally given by the parents, but the baby-sitter must be able to execute them. Another task considered important for the baby-sitter is related to sleep, that is, knowing how to put the children to sleep, both for daily rest and for the evening.
Other tasks that fall under the baby-sitter’s duties are those related to cleaning, and thus this figure must be able to change diapers, remove the diaper, dress and undress the child. Although these may seem like mundane tasks, that is not really the case, because you have to do them. The baby-sitter, moreover, must also know how to educate, teaching values and rules, although primarily these are the parents’ tasks. The baby-sitter, however, intervenes by supporting the family in the entire educational project. Finally, this professional figure must also take care of play and fun, considered two fundamental activities not only for the physical growth but also for the cognitive development of the child.
Working as a baby-sitter: training and certifications
Regarding the training of this professional figure, there does not seem to be a specific path. However, there are study paths that can somehow benefit those who decide to undertake this task.
Let’s see below what are the degrees and/or courses indicated for performing this task:
- Degree in primary education sciences and/or education sciences with a focus on nursery and/or preschool
- Community worker diploma
- Degree or qualification, teacher or early childhood educator
- Diploma from a technical institute for social services
- Specialization in expressive play activities
- Degree from a higher education institution or postgraduate diploma, in accordance with art. 15 of L.r.n. 32/90.
As we have seen, there is no real certification to perform the job of baby-sitting. It seems that in recent years, however, many private institutions organize training courses and also issue certificates. However, these professional figures refer to the contract related to domestic workers, of which, in addition to baby-sitters, housekeepers and caregivers are also part, which is the National Collective Labor Agreement for the domestic sector that, since 2013, regulates the domestic work relationship and which is updated year after year, along with salaries.
Working as a Baby Sitter: Salary and Job Offers
The average salary of a baby-sitter in Italy is generally 39,754 euros per year or 20 euros per hour. This seems to be 2.5 times more than the average salary in the country. In any case, the salaries of baby-sitters are governed by the national collective labor agreement for domestic work which classifies staff into four categories. It appears that at each level, it corresponds to a different salary range ranging from a minimum of €4.54 per hour to €8.68 for experienced workers. There is also talk of monthly salary and in this case, the minimum amount is €624, while the maximum amount is €1,371. The job offers for baby-sitters are numerous, both in the north and south of the country. On the web, you can find many advertisements from families who, for business reasons, often cannot take care of their children and that is why they are looking for a baby-sitter.
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