I am basing this review from the one babysitter we had.
I am only familiar with care.com back in USA, where you get to interview the sitter yourself, and where either you run a background check or the sitter provides a background check. I decided to go with this place, as it had positive reviews on yelp/trip advisor and most importantly, they state that they are licensed/bonded and background checks are done.
We had the same babysitter for 2 days but I wish I just asked for another one on the second day. I am not confrontational, so I just kept it as is, hoping the second day would get better.
If you are ok with a sitter who completely disregards any instruction you give her or doesn't really care about keeping conditions sanitary for your baby, but is good at making your baby laugh and smile, you would be ok with the sitter we had. As my husband said to me, "as long as the baby was not harmed, it's not like we are hiring her for longterm"...
On our first day, the sitter communicated with me via texts during her hours w/ my 7month old. I was totally good with communicating and didn't mind at all. I was bothered though when she texted to either turn the baby camera off or to face it towards the baby sleeping. I told her it can face the baby while she's sleeping, then to turn it towards the playmat when she was awake. No response. Both days, the sitter just left the camera facing baby's bed, so I could NOT see what was happening during the activity time on the playmat. Therefore, I could not witness any of the interaction between the sitter and the baby. I texted her on a different topic that if she was planning on taking the baby outside (as she had asked when we met and i said that was fine) to put her jacket on. She texted me how much she was eating, napping, etc and a happy video of my baby laughing from her phone. I then texted her that if she does take the baby out, that she needs a sweater and a cap as well. I was trying to give her specific directions via text, as we had not discussed where my baby's outdoor clothes were located nor had she asked me. Anyway, we see sitter in the village and my baby only has a sweater on w/ my jacket over her legs (this is march in whistler). I want to assume that the sitter overlooked the text about putting on the baby's jacket. We ended up running into her in the lobby and i just said to her "oh her jacket is not on?" and told her where it was, as she and baby were headed back out again.
I felt like things just got worse on second day. I had read off instructions to her the first day in terms of washing hands, feeding,napping. I myself don't remember instructions people give me, and i find it easier if I write it down. Anyway, neither days did the sitter wash her hands before handling the baby, at least while I was there, unless she decided to wash her hands after I left. When I saw her walk on the baby's playmat with her shoes and also sit on the playmat with her shoes on, with my baby, I was like... i realized she could care less about being sanitary for baby's health/sake. My baby tends to put everything in her mouth (as most teething babies do ) and the last thing I wanted was her to get sick. On top of this, I had placed my baby's jacket on the ledge on top of the sofa seat, not the part where you sit. I come back to the room since I had left my gloves behind, and I see the baby's jacket thrown on the hotel floor (who knows how many people have stepped on the hotel floor?) The second day, the sitter stated that my 7 month old would not eat more than 3 ounces (she normally eats 7-8ounces) during her 4 hours of sitting. She said the baby would cry when she offered more. My baby had been gulping her formula the whole week as if she was going through a growth spurt, so I thought it was odd that she wasn't interested in feeding, but I am going to take the sitter's word for it.
Sad to say, this has been the least pleasant babysitter experience for me. read more