Protecting the Gift: Babysitting

I've been reading an excellent book "Protecting the gift: Keeping children and teenagers safe (and parents sane)" by Gavin De Becker. So far, it has addressed issues such as the importance of trusting our intuition, teaching our children how to talk to strangers, selecting babysitters, and signals to recognize when someone is trying to manipulate or control before their intentions are obvious.

The timing of my reading coincided with our decision to find a babysitter who could regularly watch our kids while we had dates. I took this opportunity to ask for names and yesterday conducted my first interview. It was a bit awkward and at times I felt like I was making a bigger deal of hiring a sitter than necessary. However, I think it communicated to her than this job is a significant responsibility and it gave me the opportunity to screen for any red flags before I had entrusted my most precious stewardship. I had her fill out an application before hand and she seemed excited to have her first "real" interview. It was a good experience for both of us.