Printable Babysitting Report

My two older girls love babysitting. They’ve taken the babysitting course and home alone course. They have loads of experience babysitting their younger sisters. Then we sent them out into the community to babysit! A few good jobs. Happy kids. Happy parents and then, Boom. I got an email from a very unhappy parent. After much discussion and a teachable moment, I created this printable babysitting report to protect both the babysitter and the family being cared for.

I won’t go into too many details but let’s just say that it was the babysitting job perfect storm. A babysitter who was playing games with the kids and getting laughs using “potty” humour. A group of 3 busy kids who needed attention and made a “mess” in the designated play area that didn’t get cleaned up. And ultimately a super conservative parent who didn’t like the outcome of the job.

The email I got the following day was blistering and gut wrenching to read. I was sad and so disappointed. I thought we had better prepared our girls for the task at hand. We quickly learned that some skills are trial and error and some people are impossible to please. Ultimately, after much discussion with our daughter about every point made in the email from the parent, we decided that it was a teaching moment. She issued a formal apology. Defended the parts that were overstated. Offered a full refund. And moved on knowing that she did the best she could in that moment and would never make those mistakes again.

This printable babysitting report is a tool for both the babysitter and the family they’re babysitting for.

As a babysitter, print this page ahead of time and bring it to the job. Use it to keep a detailed record of everything that happens, from foods the kids eat to what they watch on TV. Keeping detailed notes like what topics come up in conversation and what time the kids went to bed helps the babysitter at the end of the job when the parents come home asking, “how did everything go?”

As a parent hiring a babysitter, you should print this page prior to your babysitter coming over. It has an area for your contact information as well as a secondary emergency contact like a neighbour or friend close by. Use the “Food/Snack” area to write down things the kids can/should eat while you’re out. Same goes for the TV/YouTube section. Leave simple directions for what they can watch and how much time the can spend on devices.

At the end of the night, I encourage my kids to review the finished report with the parents, take a picture of the report for their own records and then leave the completed printable babysitting report with the parents.

My kids have been using this printable babysitting report for almost a year now and have had nothing but glowing reviews and happy families.

Get your free Printable Babysitting Report here!