Do you allow babysitters to discipline your kids?

Question

Do you allow babysitters to discipline your kids? If so, how? Do you take into account the age of your kids? The age of the sitter? Is the age difference between the kids and sitter important? Or is maturity level of the sitter more important than age?

Answer 1

I would allow the Babysitter to discipline the same ways I discipline the children. Having said this in order for that to be appropriate you have to trust the babysitter and know that they wont just spank the children just because they can.

Answer 2

Yes, when needed.  I think it's rare, but my daughter has definitely seen a few time outs at the sitter's during the day.  You can't just let them get away with bad behavior, especially when it comes to being mean and/or harmful to other people or even belongings.  (ie - throwing things)  We only have one regular sitter, she is a SAHM of 4 school-age kids, so I trust her and her judgement.  As long as the sitter and the parents are on the same page as far as what is acceptable for discipline, it should definitely be allowed as long as both parties are comfortable with it.

Answer 3

I was a nanny for 3 years, the first 2 kids I watched I wasn't allowed to discipline them other than putting them in "time out" and they had no respect for me at all, they would hit me, yell and scream at me, and then when their mom got home she wouldn't do anything about it either... TIME OUT DOES NOT WORK

The other 2 children I could discipline, I could smack there hand or give them a swat on the tail, and I didn't do it very often, only when it needed to be done, and they respected me, and didn't act out as much because they knew they would get in trouble for it.

Its your decision, I would make sure you know the sitter (that way you know they aren't going to spank them for no reason)

and if you don't allow the sitter to discipline your kids, tell the kids that if they are bad while you are gone that you will discipline them when you get home....and above all..KEEP YOUR WORD!!!!

Answer 4

Well, first off when I was babysitting(mon-friday 10 hours a day) I had a 2 and 4 year old. I would never physically spank them, hand, butt, nothing. I would, however, put them in their room or not let them watch a television show, nothing drastic, but enough to let them know that they can't act that way and they can be punished even if not by mommy. I was 17 and 18 while watching these children, and I think that's important as well, you can't really tell a 12 year old how to discipline a 5 year old unless they're quite mature for their age.

Answer 5

Yes of course.  If the babysitter doesn't set some ground rules and assert his/her authority, the kids will always be naughty and eventually you will lose said babysitter.  Just have a conversation with him/her about what's acceptable to you and what's not.

Answer 6

I have been a nanny/babysitter for 4 years and the most important thing is to tell the caregiver the rules that you have the first time you meet them. The last thing you want is to have the babysitter be confused on how to handle a problem. Also, the best way to have a child become close to a babysitter (to the point of it not being a problem when you leave) is to have the child respect the caregiver- this is not achievable unless there are boundaries set and FOLLOWED every time. There are no perfect children and babysitters need to be allowed to discipline when they see fit (within the ways you are comfortable).

Answer 7

I feel that the maturity level of the sitter is the primary concern.  More details would be nice, like how old your child(ren) are and how old your sitter is.

Personally, I feel that the sitter should be able to discipline children, 100%.  How do you expect your children to respect your sitter as the person in charge if you do not allow him or her to discipline your children?  

That being said, I would only allow my sitter the authority to use time outs, and early bedtimes as punishment.  I would not allow them to take toys away (i.e. you lose your video games for a week, etc.)  Things like that should be reserved for parents.  If the child is misbehaving, though, I feel my sitter should be able to put my kids in a time out (or send them to their room, if they're older.)  

It gets a little hairy though if your children are 11 and your sitter is only 14.  I feel though that if your children are that old, you should probably find an older sitter because if the children misbehave, the poor sitter being only 3 years older than they are is going to feel overwhelmed and powerless against them.

Hope that helps.  Good luck!

Answer 8

My kids are angels and the babysitter never has to disicipline them.  But I do know she uses time-outs with the other kids.

Answer 9

good grief, yes.  we tell our babysitters they're free to use timeouts, withdraw privileges, or set early bedtimes.  we only use adult sitters so the age factor doesn't come into play.