Leaving
their children alone with someone else is one of
a parent’s biggest fears.
All too often you hear of parents innocently
heading out for the evening only to discover
later on that the person they entrusted their
children to had a history of violence, sexual
assault, or pedophilia.
Background checks should always be performed on
new babysitters in order to prevent such a
tragedy. There are three major steps to a proper
background check: Speaking with the prospective
candidate about their past, speaking with other
people who have hired this babysitter, and most
importantly performing a criminal background
check. This final step will show you if there is
anything in the candidate’s past that should
prevent you from leaving your children alone
with them.
Performing a Babysitter Background Check:
Step One
Conduct a thorough interview with your potential
babysitter, being sure to ask them about their
own parents and their past. You can learn a lot
about who someone is now and how they treat
people by how they describe their past. They
will often treat your children in a way similar
to how they were treated by their parents. Often
one’s concept of authority is shaped by the way
parents hold authority over their children. This
could impact the way they use their position of
authority with your children.
Step Two
Get references of other adults who are familiar
with the candidate. Speak with several people
and as much as possible try to determine if the
story given to you by the candidate is true.
Your babysitter may be lying if you notice
inconsistencies between what they told you and
what the references tell you. Someone who is not
being truthful with you may have something to
hide. Even if it does not indicate something
dark about their past, it does show you that
they can not be trusted.
Step Three
Perform a check of criminal records using one of
several alternatives. In every state in the
country criminal records are considered public
documents. The problem is that for each state
their may be several state and local
jurisdictions to check. It could take you a
significant amount of time to thoroughly check
these records on your own. You would also need
to pay clerk fees for almost every jurisdiction,
which would quickly become cost prohibitive. The
good news is that there are several reputable
companies who have collected all these records
into one database that they will allow you to
search for one low fee. Some of the top
companies include CriminalFiles, Investigate123,
and Webstigate.
You need to perform a background check on your
babysitter in order to ensure that it is safe to
leave your children with them. Checking for a
criminal past will give you a clue if there are
is anything in the past that would make it
unwise to hire them. You can easily perform this
criminal background check using the database
complied by one of several reputable companies.
It makes sense to take this one simple step in
order to help protect your children.
