I've found several good sitters through sittercity and use them consistently. I filter my search to only include people with a background check and who are within a certain radius. I also call and check references and have the sitter over for a (paid) trial first.
I use babysitters just for recreation, so I can afford to be picky and thorough.
I'd like a background check on a nanny/au pair/mother's helper, but I wouldn't bother for a casual babysitter. When we lived near family I'd just use them for babysitting, and now we use people who we know (a neighbour, another neighbour's teenage son, the kindy teacher).
The only time we've used a professional babysitter it was awful; my daughter (five or so at the time) was very upset the next morning because the professional sitter had screamed at her (year-old, maybe 18 month-old) little brother for not going to sleep promptly in a strange cot in a strange room with a strange woman looking after him. I'm sure she's the one in a thousand crappy professional sitters, but I was horrified.
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I use babysitters just for recreation, so I can afford to be picky and thorough.
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I don't even know how you run a background check like businesses do on you. All the online ones seem more like scams than legit ones.
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The only time we've used a professional babysitter it was awful; my daughter (five or so at the time) was very upset the next morning because the professional sitter had screamed at her (year-old, maybe 18 month-old) little brother for not going to sleep promptly in a strange cot in a strange room with a strange woman looking after him. I'm sure she's the one in a thousand crappy professional sitters, but I was horrified.
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