In many parts of the United States, parents sometimes ask a young girl in the neighborhood (often between 12-17 years old) to watch their young children while they go out on a date. (This is especially true when the parents do not have other family who live nearby.) In exchange, the parents pay the girls money for their services (often based on the number of hours they care for the kids). However, such an activity might not be universal from culture to culture. So, is babysitting like I've described above common in your country? If not, what do parents do if they want to go out on a date alone? Please share your ideas.
Randall
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In my asian culture, babysitting was described above isn't common. If any, it's a purely help relationship not for money. Parents often take their children to relations or hire a maid, whom is paid monthly. So, they feel secure when they go out alone.
ReplyDeleteFirst of all, going out for a date is uncommon in India. If at all parents are going our for party or any other important occasions, they take their child with them. Most probably parents in India do not want to leave child alone or hand over them to others to take care. In case they need, parents give their child to well known relatives and in is not possible to handover their child to take care by paying money. But now a days things are changing drastically, we find Child Care Centers every where in Cities. So, I feel its better to hand over the child to Care Centers because they are specially trained to look after small children instead of give to neighbors who is also a child.
ReplyDeleteParents now a days needs to work 2 to 3 jobs just to make ends meet because of the high cost of living. They don't have anymore time to take care of their children that's why babysitters are very in demand now. Parents can't be with their children to attend to their needs if they have to work just so that they can bring home the bacon.
ReplyDeleteIn my country is not common to leave the child with a babysitter. If the parents want to go out for a date or a party they take the child to a family, just in the case that they don`t have a maid that is paid monthly.
ReplyDeleteBabysitting is common in Turkey. It really depends on culture.
ReplyDeleteGreat Blog, Randall. In Canada, babysitting is often done by both males and females (although it is still more common for females to be hired as babysitters).
ReplyDeleteIn Taiwan people leave their kids with a family member if they want to go out in the evening somewhere, usually the grandmother, but it might be an uncle or aunt. Parents often live with the dad's parents anyway, but they might be living nearby. I've never heard of people hiring a babysitter here. Teenage girls are not considered suitable for being responsible for someone's kids even for just a few hours. If people have a full-time live-in maid/nanny then of course they are free to go out whenever they like.
ReplyDeleteMany parents just take their kids with them when they go out. It's common to see a family with very young kids out late in the evening at a restaurant. I don't blame them. If there's no family member or nanny, you're faced with going out as a family or never going out at all. In Taiwan, there are no babysitters!
In my country, Brazil, it is not really common parents have a babysitter just Friday night. Instead of this, they usually have someone to look after their children during the whole week, 24/7! Unfortunately, this sort of job isn't well-pay, at the same time there is no experience needed.
ReplyDeleteGreat blog, Randall.
ReplyDeleteIn Colombia, nannies and babysitters are rare, multi-service providers like, Supervision of meals, cleaning, pet care, etc. Some are certified in first aid courses, cooking classes and health. Most are old enough.
Something similar happens in Colombia although most of the times when parents need the service, babysitting, they leave their children with their grandmother because families are rarely separated, otherwise on American society.
ReplyDeletesantiago mora
In Europe, parents take a big risk if they leave their children with a babysitter aged from 12 to 17 years of age. In European culture, a child can be left alone at home only if he or she is 12. That is to say that a babysitter aged from 12 to 17 is as immature as a child who can be left alone. So parents usually leave their children alone only if they are above 12. I don't have any precise age because I don'tknow the trend. It just varies from family to family. But recently, the news reported about a mother of two who left her children at home to go somewhere. While the mother was absent, the children played on the balcony and one them fell over. They lived on the seventh floor of a building. Miraculously, the child did not die and was unharmed because its fall was cushioned by the roller blinds of a café. However, the parents were charged by the police for having 'abandoned' their children.
ReplyDeleteIn my country the work of babysitter depends greatly on the social status of the person contracting the service, that is, if the person who hires the babysitter is the upper stratum, prefer someone with experience, adult, qualified in first aid and education, although this situation is not very common. The rest of the people who needed a babysitter commissioned this work to the person in charge of cleanliness and food preparation at home.
ReplyDeletewell here in Mexico babysitting is not such a well pay job. I don know why, maybe the people doesn's know all the responsability that babysitting represent.
ReplyDeleteThis is an important job as many others cuz you have to watch for the children's life.
In fact, i think to be a good babysitter you have to take CPR courses and firs aid, children always be children and they are always doing antics and get hurt.
In Vietnam, it is really common to see a babysitting in almost every home. The thing is we, Vietnamese used to have lots and lots of kidnapping by them, so it is being common anymore.
ReplyDeleteit's not true, only some families live in the big city (like HCMC) they have a babysister.But most of Vietnamese people live in the countryside and they don't have the culture that rent a babysitter for a couple of hour. Instead, they often have the grandparents or the uncle/aunt to look after the kid if they
DeleteIn Brazil parents just ask for someone who they trust in. It's not a rocket science, they ask someone responsible and pay him/her, in exchange, they pay the person who took care of the kids
ReplyDelete