At CareFinder, our goal is to make finding the best babysitter for your family simple. We put a lot of time and effort into vetting sitters all over Japan to make sure you have plenty of wonderful options to choose from!

 

But finding a babysitter is only one step in making sure you have a great experience; there are "do's" and "don'ts" to successfully working with a sitter, as well.

 

 

Knowing what you want is a good thing, but being rigid can sometimes mean missing out. Determine which factors are non-negotiable (language or location, for instance) but consider flexibility on others (such as gender, nationality or age). Aside from giving you more options to choose from, keeping an open mind about who you will hire could also provide an opportunity for your children to learn from new perspectives. Check out our article on when it's best to keep an open mind and what should be a babysitter deal-breaker. 

 

If you are only offering Y1000 an hour, it is unlikely you will find a sitter with exceptional experience and qualifications. Most of CareFinder's sitters charge at least Y1500, and that only goes up as babysitters become more skilled. If you want someone you can trust to take care of your children, you should be realistic about its cost. Your child's well-being is not a place to cut corners!

 

CareFinder's babysitters have experience watching all kinds of children, of all ages. Many are also willing and able to perform other duties, such as cleaning and cooking. Make sure you are clear about what your children require (whether it's lots of activity or dedicated quiet time), as well as any other tasks you'd require. It's best to start with clear expectations than to potentially surprise a sitter with responsibilities they may not be comfortable handling.

 

Pictures may be worth a thousand words, but don't base your babysitting decisions on a head shot (the CareFinder team aren't professional photographers, after all!). The best way to determine if a sitter is going to work for your family is to read through their introduction and schedule an in-person interview and/or trial sitting.

 

You've put in the work to find and interview the best sitter for your family. Now, trust that they know what they're doing! Once they're on the job, let them be the boss. Otherwise, you create confusion for your children as to whether or not they need to listen to the sitter. If you have issues with something a sitter has done, you should absolutely address it, just not in front of the kids.

 

While CareFinder does work hard to find the very best sitters for our platform, there may be times where you aren't able to find the one. But we are adding new sitters every day, so just because your search may have come up empty one weekend, it doesn't mean you'll be out of luck the next! You can also always reach out to our team to let us know what you're looking for so we can give you a heads up when someone's added to the community.