Family Magazine reports that 76% of middle school age youth are babysitting either family members or other’s children. Childcare training provides life skills in parenting. Babysitting is often a youth’s first gainful employment experience. The Meade County Cooperative Extension Service 4-H program offered a 10 hour 4-H Babysitting Basics programs at Stuart Pepper Middle School as an afterschool program.

This program was a collaborative effort between the Meade County 4-H Youth Development program, the Stuart Pepper Youth Services Center and the Meade County office of the Lincoln Trail Health Department in October 2017.  The 4-H program created the recruitment flyer and provided 8 of the educational hours to participants, the final 2 educational hours were provided by the Health Department focusing on CPF and basic first aid.  The youth service center helped to recruit participants and obtained parental permission for them to stay.

Twenty female youth, in grades 7-8, learned about child development and milestones, safety and first aid, toys and activities for children, basic care of infants, toddlers and children, and the business basics of being a self-employed babysitter. Evaluation included written pre-tests and post-tests and a homework assignment for participants to complete with their parents. A comparison of the pre-post test scores showed a one hundred percent increase in scores indicating that knowledge was gained by participants during the clinics.  On the post self-assessment, eighty-seven percent of the participants indicated an increase of the following skills:  ability to take on more responsibility, more creativity, the ability to communicate in front of a group, achieving individually set goals, use of safety practices, and feeling more confident in caring for infants, toddlers and preschoolers.Participants also shared that the following skills had been gained and put to use as a result of participating in this program:  safety, healthy food recipes, changing the child’s environment to change their behavior, diaper changing, calming an upset child and keeping a child occupied and busy during a babysitting job.  Forty percent of participants reassessed the hourly wage they were charging prior to the babysitting clinic and chose to raise their rates an average of $3.00 per hour.

Prior to taking the 4-H Babysitting Basics course, about ten percent of the youth had not cared for children, but felt better prepared after completing the class. About ninety percent of participants could state and understand the primary responsibilities of a babysitter.One hundred percent of these future babysitters learned at least 3 vital pieces of information they need to know before parents leave the home; these youth could also name two places or people to contact in event of an emergency. Through the additional take home assignment, ten percent of the participants took the initiative to interview another person (usually their own parent) about what their expectations would be of a babysitter they hired and one hundred percent demonstrated skills such as: holding, feeding and burping an infant and changing a diaper.