Norwich students babysit for fun, profit

For Norwich students who do not have the time for a full-time job, babysitting on weekends or after class can be an educational and fun way to earn some money.

Tanya Mills, the social media manager for Norwich, is in charge of keeping the list of Norwich babysitters up-to-date on the college's webpage.

"When I first started working for Norwich I was going through the my.norwich.edu site and I noticed that we had a link to a babysitting website," Mills said. "I found out that there had been a child care committee and that the webpage was the result of that committee."

However, after Mills spoke to committee director Ellen Liptak in the human resources department, she found that the committee was no longer active.

"I had been contacted by a student who had a child. She wanted to know what was going on with the babysitting services," Mills said. "That was when I decided to put up a notice and start asking students if they were interested in babysitting."

Mills, wanting to spark the interest of students, put flyers up around campus in places like the Wise Campus Center that advertised the webpage where students can make themselves available to the community.

The flyer has a bright, eye-catching picture of a young woman and a small child, followed by what personal information the student can submit to bulletins@norwich.edu in order to be placed on the webpage.

Mills was rewarded with several responses for her efforts. Every Friday she edits the information on the webpage and updates the list of students interested in babysitting, so community members don't accidently contact a student who no longer has an interest in babysitting.

"The students send me their information, like if they have a car and when they're available to babysit," Mills said, "then I put it on the website along with their email or phone number so that people can contact them for babysitting."

"I think it's really important that when a student gives us their information that they do a good job outlining their experience working with children," Mills said, "because I think that's very helpful for our community members when they're looking for babysitters."

She added that the sense of community that comes from the mutual trust built between the babysitter and the parents is excellent for both parties, and that it's never too late to learn something new about the people around you.

Lauren Lebel, a 21-year-old senior nursing major from Saint Albans, Vt., said she wished she had found out about the webpage before her senior year.

"I saw a flyer in the Mill advertising the babysitting opportunity," Lebel said, "and I wish I had seen it sooner or gotten an email notice or something because I would have submitted my information."

"As I grew up and got a bit older it was easier to find babysitting jobs," she said. "But growing up in a small, rural Vermont town made it hard for me to get a lot of childcare experience at first. I wish my high school had had an advertisement system like that."

Lebel's babysitting experience comes from watching her nephew.

"I've always loved kids, especially my nephew, and since becoming a nursing major I've been drawn to pediatrics," she said.

"I learned so much from being able to babysit my nephew when he was a newborn, and it's even more interesting to watch him grow and develop now that he's a 19-month-old," Lebel said. "It reminds me why I want to be involved with pediatrics."

"Whenever I babysit, even if it's for family, I like to tell the parents that I'm CPR certified and that I have some medical background working with kids," Lebel added. "It helps give them peace of mind if they know that their kid is safe with me."

Jennifer Peterson from Montpelier wants to know that any babysitter she hires will keep her two children as safe as possible.

"A student from Norwich has been watching my 10-year-old daughter and 15-year-old son for three years now," Peterson said. "She's been amazing, and she's like a family member at this point."

"I admit that at first I was a little concerned about hiring a student who may or may not be good with kids, but I needed a sitter," Peterson said. "She ended up being better than I could have hoped for."

Peterson said the student was "responsible, kind, thoughtful and patient" while working with her kids.

"My son is a diabetic, and he can give himself his insulin, but he needs help remembering it and in getting healthy meals," she said. "She was great at helping him with that."

She added that when the student was babysitting she also did chores like washing dishes and vacuuming without being asked to, and without expecting extra pay.

"I didn't always hand her cash in exchange for babysitting," Peterson said, "but if she was going to take my daughter to the movies or whatever I would pay for her ticket and make sure they both got popcorn or a treat."

Peterson added that the student usually babysits her children in the summer, but has made herself available during the school year as well, especially on vacations.

Peterson is also pleased with her children's babysitter because the young woman helps teach her children while having fun with them.

"I remember last year when she took my daughter to the river a lot during the summer," Peterson said. "She taught (my daughter) Katie about different local wildlife and helped her improve her swimming skills. I was really pleased with her degree of involvement with my kids."

Peterson has had experiences with babysitters who "sit around doing nothing" while her kids are left unattended, but the Norwich student she hired surpassed her expectations.

Stephanie Dorain, a 22-year-old senior history and education major from Wilder, Vt., learned about the webpage from a professor. One day in class she jokingly suggested she'd babysit for if he ever needed it. He took her seriously, and asked if her information was on the webpage. She said no, but that she would submit it.

"I have three younger brothers, but I just started babysitting recently in the Norwich community," she said. "I babysit for one of my professors who has a 6-month-old baby boy, and I really like it because already it's helped me develop my child-care skills."

"It was also a really comfortable setting," she added. "The parents took me through the house and had me observe one of their normal afternoon routines so that I would I feel confident with how they do things."

Dorain also made sure to check with the parents about medical information for the infant, such as if he had any allergies or special needs and his basic likes and dislikes.

"I have to really pay attention to how he's feeling that day," Dorain said. "He's just started to teethe and I like to know ahead of time if he's going to be grumpy or not."

Dorain, an education major, has taken courses on different aspects of human physical and psychological growth. She's been able to incorporate information from her courses into her babysitting work as applied knowledge.

Now taking a child developmental psychology class, Dorain finds that it's "really neat" to watch the infant grow and go through the human stages of development.

She also is able to use the child as her subject for a service-learning project where she studies his growth and notes if he's at the standard for his age group.

"He's not learning to walk quite yet, but he loves to bounce in his jumper or play with the toys in his play-pen," Dorain said. "He has fun and I can see that he's developing the basic skills where he should be at 6 months."

One of her most memorable moments while babysitting was when the infant rested his head on her shoulder in a gesture of trust and comfort, much the way he would have done with his mother.

"The little boy has gotten to the point where he recognizes me now and knows who I am," Dorain said, "and one day I was holding him after dinner and he put his arms around me and snuggled his head against my shoulder. It made me feel really happy."

Samantha Fontaine, a 20-year-old sophomore international studies major from Williston, Vt., has also just started babysitting through the Norwich webpage.

"I think it is really great that the school provides this service for community and faculty members," she said. "I know it can be very difficult to find babysitters, especially if you are a new to the area and do not know any trustworthy teenagers or young adults."

Fontaine originally decided to put her information on the webpage because she figured it would be a good way to earn some extra money. She's been babysitting for several years now, and felt confident that she could handle the demands of child care.

"I've been babysitting for almost eight years now, so I knew I could handle it. I have only done one job so far this year for a professor but it was a good experience," Fontaine said.

Indigo Wolf, a 21-year-old sophomore chemistry major from East Montpelier, Vt., is just learning what it takes to babysit effectively.

"I was babysitting this past year for a family friend, and until I started watching the kids I had no idea how much energy and vigilance it took to constantly be watching a little kid," Wolf said, "let alone two or three at a time."

This past summer Wolf babysat a 6-year-old on some days, and an 8- and 10-year-old at other times. "The 6-year-old was so hyper, and it was all I could do to keep an eye on him to make sure he wasn't getting into trouble," Wolf said.

"One of the kids I helped watch was diabetic, and I had to help make sure he ate the right foods and gave himself his medicine," Wolf said. "It was challenging to make sure he didn't sneak in candy on the side."

Like Peterson's babysitter, Wolf wanted the kids he babysat to be active as well as having fun, so he came up with a variety of ideas to keep them entertained.

"We often went swimming on the nice days, and video games were a pretty common thing," Wolf said. "We played video games as a reward if they were being well-behaved. I also took them on a walk through town to get ice cream sometimes, since that was a treat too."

Wolf added that he sometimes had to work with the kids on learning lessons such as sharing and compromise.

"Some of (the kids) liked different video games so I had to make sure they took turns choosing what game was going to be played and who was playing what character so none of them felt left out or undervalued," Wolf said.

Even though he liked babysitting the kids, Wolf doesn't think that it's something he'd care to do beyond helping a friend of the family out.

"I was mainly babysitting to help my family friend, and I wasn't getting paid or anything. But it was fine because I liked spending time with the kids," Wolf said. "Besides, not everything you do to help someone out has to be done to make money."

"It's about the kid's happiness," Wolf added. "If they're stuck with a babysitter they don't like or who treats them badly then they'll be miserable, and no parent should want their kids to feel like that."