<p>D, an experienced babysitter in search of work, has received responses from posting her resume on her college’s job board, and has also answered several ads posted there. When she babysat at home, it was always for someone she or we already knew, or a friend of a friend, or a reference from a trusted adult, etc. But these contacts are all from total strangers. She of course knows better than to go to a stranger’s home for an interview, and she has met a few people at the local Starbucks. Today a great job opportunity surfaced, but the father wanted to meet her at Starbucks and, if all went well, have her accompany him back to his house to meet his wife and child. She was wary of this arrangement and called to ask my opinion. Of course I told her she had to be out of her mind to consider it, and I advised her to either take a friend to the coffee shop or insist the whole family meet her there, and also told her to obtain their references. She was concerned these approaches would be rude and off-putting and end any chance at getting the job. I told her that any parent hiring a babysitter would find her concern for safety an asset. She did do a reverse lookup on the phone number the man called from, and was able to confirm that a husband and wife with the right names lived in the area, which was of some comfort. I Googled him, and found he was a fairly prominent businessman. But then just as we were both wrestling with how to handle this, the man called to say he, his wife and his child would come to the campus to meet her.</p>
<p>I’m writing all this first to alert parents to the safety issues involved with looking for babysitting work and second to ask if anyone has any ideas on how best to arrange interviews/home visits so that D can pursue interesting opportunities while protecting herself. I’m sure there are plenty of legitimate families out there who like the idea of hiring a college student as a babysitter and have no evil intentions–but how can the connection be safely made?</p>