So, Jonah is 10 months old now, and the cutest baby in the world (cite). We have a couple of high-school-aged babysitters come watch him during the day so I can work without being distracted by the cuteness (or the crying).
Here’s my question: the babysitter is here from 8:30am-1:30pm. Should I provide lunch (or the makings for lunch)? I can’t remember what people did for me when I babysat – I mean, I know I ate their stuff, but that was more informal. I’ve done the informal thing and told our babysitter to please help herself to whatever she wants. But should I provide specific lunch-type foods, or just trust that she’ll scrounge? Sometimes there isn’t a whole lot of easily-eaten food in our kitchen, and I don’t want to drive our babysitters away…
I would make sure the cupboards are stocked with easily assembled type food - some lunch meat or tuna, loaf of sandwich bread, a few boxes of kraft dinner. Makes sure there’s something easily scroungable, but requires no effort on your part save actually purchasing it.
1:30 is close enough to “lunch time” that you could really go either way. If you want to forge strong ties with your sitters so that they’re always available on Friday nights with no notice, or to come in early when you’ve got the flu, then making lunch available to them is one of the nice things you can do so that they like you. If, on the other hand, funds are tight and you don’t expect to keep them as sitters once school starts again in the fall, you won’t be rude for not feeding them for that time period.
Personally, I like to keep the babysitters and secretaries in my life very, very happy.
Another vote for making lunch available. I’d say that, particularly if she’s at all active when not in your home, she’ll be starving if she has to wait until 1:30 (or later, given that it takes a while to pack up and find some food, unless she brings her own).
You should make food available but you don’t need to fix it yourself. Just buy some canned soup, tuna, bread, mac and cheese, etc. and you will be all set. The sitter can eat it if she wants and, if she does, you will be out just a dollar or two. Sodas or juice would also be nice but you should ask about general preferences.
Yeah, it would be nice to ask her what kind of lunch meat she likes or whatever (although she’ll probably say, “oh, whatever”) - perhaps multiple choice. “Do you prefer ham or turkey?” Of course, that’s just doing the really nice thing.
I may have been just extra shy, but I always appreciated when the person I was babysitting for told me explicitly what was OK (or not) for me to eat. Being told, “I have sandwich stuff in the fridge or mac & cheese or some frozen dinners for you to eat” saved me from feeling like a dumbass scrounging around their freezer for a frozen lasagna or eating something they were saving for later.
Yes, I second the recommendation to explicitly state what is available. I always appreciated that when I was babysitting, so I was 100% sure I wasn’t accidentally eating someone’s favorite leftovers or whatnot. My aunt would usually leave some insta-food (e.g., mac & cheese, spaghettios, frozen pizza) and tell me to just heat up whatever of it I wanted to.
Thanks, everyone – it was the “1:30 is close enough to lunchtime to go either way” thing that got me. I’ll make sure there’s at least the makings for sammiches, because I want my babysitters happy!
What I came in to add has already been said by others, so I will just comment that, since my baby is going to turn 13 (years, not months) in a couple of weeks, I will happily cede the Cutest Baby crown to Jonah. He is a MAJOR cutie!
Make food available, but don’t force it on her. “If you get hungry, there’s some meat, cheese, and salad in the fridge. And some bread and chips in the cupboard. Help yourself.”
