The hunt for the elusive good babysitter

Stock photo from Thinkstock Photos

My husband and I finally got a date night this past Saturday and it was wonderful. Seriously. It was great to get out of the house and have some time alone together. We haven't been doing it as much as we should lately and that is because we haven't had a regular, dependable babysitter in quite some time.

We were lucky when Caleb was first born...we had the BEST babysitter (the daughter of a friend) from the time when Caleb was 6 months old. But last spring she graduated from high school and moved on to college. Since then we have tried out a few others, utilized friends and neighbors...but we were not able to find a good babysitter. Most of our friends use family, but our closest family member lives over 1 hour from us.

For me a good babysitter must have a few qualities that are necessary. They must be friendly, reliable, and play/interact with Caleb...not just sit and watch TV while he plays by himself. They should not leave my house in a state of chaos and do their best to abide by the house rules of bedtime, bath time and tooth brushing.

Since we had such an easy time finding our first babysitter for Caleb I had no idea how hard it could be to find someone good. When we were trying out others there was the time that when we got home at 11:30 that he was still up. Or the time when our house was messier than I had ever seen it...toys everywhere, tons of dirty dishes in the sink and crusty food on the counter tops. Or the worst was the time that the babysitter took our son swimming without our permission. (Seriously, that happened...I didn't even know what her swimming skill was, let alone how did she know how well my 3 year old son swims. Yeah...I was definitely not happy with that one!)

But I think that we have finally found the elusive good babysitter...heck I think that she might even be classified as "great." She lives in the neighborhood and we know both her mom and dad...in fact my husband worked with her mom in the past. She can walk to the house so we don't have to worry about transportation. She is only 13, so we should be able to get at least 3 years from her and she has completed the babysitter classes and knows CPR. (Heck I don't even know CPR that well...it's been years since I took a class!)

And the best part...my son absolutely LOVED her. He told us stories about how they read books together. And how they played cars and pretend. He called her "my friend Brandy" and asked when she can come back again. That for me sealed the deal!

So here's to more date nights in my future...and maybe I can actually go and get my hair done on a Saturday.