To have the telly off when the sitter is here

[SherbettingSherbert]

DD does nursery 2 mornings a week so I use the sitters.co.uk service on other days when I have a freelance project on (I'm self employed). Usually just 3 hrs at a time.

It's worked well and most sitters have been really great.
I try to be as considerate as possible, sitters are welcome to eat, drink whatever they see and I don't expect any nappy changes or meals to be made or given due to the time-slot. I'm in the house anyway and happy to take a quick break for that. DD is 2.5 and no longer naps.

She has books and toys (not a room-full, but enough) and we have a small garden with a little swing and slide if they want to get outdoors for a bit.

One thing I'm not so keen on is having the telly on. We're not against screen time and have used it but DD can get fixated so we're limiting even more now. DP and I don't have it on either unless were watching something specific in the evenings.

I don't want the sitters to get bored here so I mention they can stick it on if they need a break. It's not been a big problem and most don't at all or do for a little bit towards the end.

However, we've had a couple of sitters going straight for the telly option, on for almost 3 hrs of kids TV with DD mostly sat like a veg.

Admittedly it's only been a small number of times but I'd like to stop it happening again and take the TV option completely off the table.

So am wondering...

IABU: It's not fair to ask a sitter to be here for 3 hrs without the option

IANBU: They're there to look after DD and it's ok to expect their attention to be on her the whole time

Also, any suggestions for extra games or activities to provide so I'm not asking them to sit together in silence would be great. (silence and toddler hahahaha)
We have a little ipad and I would be happy for them to use it to stream music or the radio though.

(Apologies for the long post, I'm not always great at being concise!)

Thank you!

If I'm paying fir childcare I'd expect them to play with my children, not use the tv. Especially if its only 3 hours.

What? It's your house, you're paying for this service, and they are there to care for your child. You absolutely can say no TV in your own home! Please unplug it immediately and tell them it's not working ;) that should do it.

its three hours they should not need tv, and you should not need to provide activities, they are being paid they should have a bag of ideas to keep kids entertained

YANBU

It sounds like they are seeing themselves as evening babysitters, where you sit and watch TV or read a book after the kids have gone to bed, and not daytime childcare.

I would just not leave the remote lying around, not mention the TV and instea tell them your child's favorite activities for if she gets bored?

Are they babysitting or offering childcare?
V much depends on their qualifications and what you're paying them!

Huh? I’m working a 12 hour day with a baby and a toddler today and there’ll be no tv (that’s for for Friday afternoons when we’ve all gone mad and I’m frazzled)

Cant they take him out? I always found entertaining a toddler indoors tedious

You absolutely should expect a paid sitter to look after yoir child without screens when it is a short daytime slot

Why do you care whether the sitter is bored or not??? They are being PAID to do a job which is entertain and care for your child! I assume they aren't an untrained, neighbour hood teen if they are via an agency?

Why cant they take DD to the park, walk around and collect autumn leaves/pine cones, decorate, make a picture etc etc?

One arrival- I'd just say no TV at all. That is clearer than saying 'stick it on if you need a break!!!'

For a 3 hour slot TV is completely unnecessary. If you’ve find babysitters inclined to turn it on just mention at the beginning that you don’t want DC to watch TV. No need to say more

If it's not ruled out, people may assume it's ok. Either through laziness, or not seeing the harm. Why not say "It's ok to put the TV on, but not for more than 30 minutes during the session"?

In my opinion you shouldn't even HAVE to tell them 'no tv' - you are paying them for a service. If you were happy for your DD to sit in front of the telly for 3 hours you'd have stuck a tv in your workspace and plonked her in front of it!

I'd just take away the remote. And if was asked for it I would look at them quizzically and in a polite way say you don't expect watching tv to be necessary/expect interactive play.

Are they allowed to take DD out?

If not, I'd probably allow a bit of TV towards the end of the 3 hour slot if they need it. I think it's quite a long time to entertain a child you don't know in a house you don't know.

It's different if you're a regular nanny and you're there all the time, but if they're doing one-off sessions I think it's quite hard!

It depends if they are childcare or a babysitter.

You can request for specific people not to come again. Request the ones you like (favourite them on the site) they will be the ones offered the jobs with you.

Great, I feel a bit better about it now. Wasn’t sure if I was being too harsh.

It’s the sitters.co.uk service and most seem to be experienced childcarers making extra cash. They’re insured, qualified and experienced (mostly).

Taking DD for a walk is a fair suggestion for sitters we’ve had before and DD knows but I don’t feel comfortable with new sitters taking her out as she’s having a bit of a phase of being a runner when out and even DP and I struggle to contain her sometimes (slowly improving thankfully!).

I really need to make the most of the 3hrs and can’t spend too much of that time prepping someone else to take her out.

Like I said we do have a small garden and DD likes going out there so that’s always an option.

I like the suggestions to just put the control away and mention what DD likes to do.

Thanks all!

Tv is fine - at the end of the day when the child is tired and the carer needs to prepare a meal or whatever . Paid childcare in the day should be stimulating . I’d leave out play dough , jigsaws and picture books and only suggest tv if DC happens to be tired like after recovering from a cold or if they’ve had a mega busy morning swimming or something.
Ive only ever had childcare settings use tv at kicking out / handover time to keep them quiet and busy so that they could chat to parents and make sure everyone went home with the right shoes on .

I think it would be reasonable to say you'd prefer no TV during those hours, but can be used if really necessary. As in, if DD is not feeling well and doesn't want to do lots of activities or is being particularly fussy and awkward and a half hour chill with a cartoon might be helpful.
Other than that, no, I'd expect a babysitter hired during the day to be doing things to keep DD occupied. Things even like just drawing pictures or helping her with a little jigsaw or something.

Just make sure there are some easy activity type toys available - jigsaws, felt pictures, colouring stuff, building blocks, play food, stuff like that.
Though I remember mine at 2.5 were mostly interested more in trying to help me with stuff! It can be hard to keep them entertained all the time at that age. Just be firm the TV is an absolute backup option (for DD) and you'll likely find most would then only use it as such.

Op, one thing I did find when mine were about that age actually was they didn't play with toys much that were around all the time. With the exception of a favourite toy, I used to seperate the toys/games/books into boxes and each week bring out a different box. So there were things they hadn't seen or played with for a couple weeks. It did really seem to get them then playing with stuff that otherwise had sat there for 2 months untouched and they didn't seem at all interested in. When they hadn't seen it for a couple weeks asuddenly they'd play with it for ages.

So maybe have some stuff put away, that isn't available to her all the time, that you bring out when you have a babysitter over. That way DD might be more engaged with the toys, and easier for the babysitter to keep her entertained for longer.

I just had a quick look at their website. I wanted to see what service they advertise.
YANBU - it's clearly stated that it's day time childcare, NOT babysitting (which they do provide, but is a different service). They should all have at least 2 years' professional childcare experience.

If I wanted my toddler to watch TV for 3 hours I'd get a 6th former in and expect to pay a lot less.

Invest in a tuff tray and set up an activity on that before sitter arrives plenty of inspiration for them on Google.

I'm in 2 minds.
I looked after my friends 2 year old a while back and was so tedious trying to entertain him indoors. Kids that age have a very short attention span and don't always settle into activities.
I would allow it for a while maybe towards the end but I would also encourage the sitter to take the child out. So much better all round doing that.

You should talk to Sitters about that. I used to work for them and they would take that really seriously.

Do they put on adult TV or children's TV when they arrive?

3 hours is not a long time. They can survive without tv. There are a million things you can do with a toddler for that time besides tv.

I'm 100% not against screen time in any way personally but if I'm paying someone to be there looking after my children I'd definitely not want them (the children) to be sat in front of it the whole time! (Or any of the time if they're only being watched for 3 hours)