With so many talented babysitters available on CareFinder, it can be difficult choosing just one. Naturally, you may want to narrow down your selection based on how close the potential sitter lives to your family's home. There are many benefits to doing this: shorter transportation time for your sitter, lower transportation costs, flexibility when you need emergency childcare, etc. But before you jump the gun, consider this: The best sitter for your family may not be the one living closest to you.

 

Finding a babysitter or nanny for your family is about so much more than just location and price. That's why we encourage parents to always have an interview and a trial sitting before settling on a decision to hire a babysitter. Although CareFinder puts a lot of work into screening the sitters, hiring a babysitters is a very personal decision. In order to get a good idea if the sitter is right for you and your family, it helps to meet face-to-face first for an interview followed by a trial sitting if you're contemplating hiring a regular babysitter. Just because a babysitter lives close by, it doesn't mean that he/she is the right fit or will have great chemistry with you and your children. In order to prevent involuntarily filtering out some great sitters, here are a few tips to consider regarding location when searching for a babysitter:

 

If you are on a budget, mention your rate and how much you are willing to pay for transportation fee on the job post. Some sitters are willing to travel far or they may already work with other families or go to school near your area. In order to prevent, involuntarily filtering them out, mention a price and allow them to decide.

 

Cities like Tokyo and Osaka are BIG. Especially in Tokyo, you can spend hours on the train in a day getting from point A to point B without ever leaving the city. Tokyo is also well-connected via trains and subways east to west but not north to south. Keep these things in mind. For example, Ogikubo and Fujimidai stations are only about 4km away from each other. But since there is no direct train between the two stations, it will take you about 30-40 minutes to go between the two stations. In contrast, Ogikubo and Shinjuku stations are about 8.5km away from each other but it only takes 10 minutes to travel between the two stations. Whether your babysitter can take one train or need to take multiple trains to the sitting location makes a huge difference in transportation time and costs. Simply being closest in distance does not mean fastest nor cheapest in getting to your home for a sitting.

 

At CareFinder, many of our sitters list their various skills and talents including tutoring, teaching dance or sports, painting, etc. on their profile. While one sitter might be exceptional in his ability to explain addition and subtraction in a way that gets your child excited about math, another sitter might blow you away in her ability to make sure your kids get so much exercise that they don't make it through a single bedtime story. Don't forget to consider what skills or personality of a babysitter may complement your children. These are qualities that tend to be hard to judge on paper (or screen in this case). That's why we encourage parents to meet all sitters in-person before hiring them. In order to get a good idea if the sitter is right for you and your family, it helps to meet face-to-face first for an interview followed by a trial sitting if you're contemplating hiring a regular babysitter.

 

We hope that these tips help you in thinking about location when hiring a new babysitter!

 

At CareFinder, we are committed to meeting all of your babysitting needs whether you are looking for just an evening babysitter, an international babysitter, a hotel babysitter, a weekend babysitter, an overnight babysitter, a great au pair or a holiday babysitter. Sign-up now to begin your search!