To quote Whitney Houston, “I believe the children are our future” so I want you to be proud of your experience as a babysitter. Whether you're a high school student looking for your first job or an experienced in-home childcare provider seeking a new position, I promise you have many transferable skills that your prospective employer will find valuable. (If you don’t know who Whitney Houston is, check out this video.)
Whether you are paid to babysit by friends and family, or you simply help take care of your siblings in your home while your parents work, you can add babysitting to your resume. Your babysitting role can provide a lot of relevant work experience on your resume. In addition to hard skills like first aid, cooking, and cleaning, you will also have developed soft skills such as creativity, patience, and interpersonal communication.
Overall Resume Tips
If you are a student creating your first resume, I give you many more tips in this post “12 High School Student Resume Tips.” I include a worksheet to help you make a list of things you might want to include like clubs, activities, projects, athletics, awards, honors, volunteer experience, and more. I give you tips on choosing the template or layout, setting up a professional email, displaying your phone number and email address, cleaning up social media, and more.
My goal is to provide you with ideas and thought-starters for the content on your babysitting resume, no matter what sections you show or what type of resume template you select.
Experience
The work experience section is where you will list any current and past jobs with the dates and locations. Organize your babysitting work history in chronological order with other positions. Try to use action verbs to lead each bullet that describes the tasks you completed and the skills you gained.
You can see an example below of how to show your babysitting job with sample bullet points. I’ve listed a wide variety so you can pick and choose those that relate to your personal experience. Depending on your babysitting position, you can change out the header term of babysitting for in-home childcare or private nanny.
Normally I would never recommend you plagiarize but I give you full permission to use any of this content on your resume. You can use it as is, or edit it to better reflect your voice and your experience.
Babysitting, St. Louis, MO May, 2022 - Current
Experience providing care for school-aged children and organizing recreational and educational activities.
Ability to manage and entertain up to four children at a time with patience and a positive attitude while maintaining an engaging and safe environment.
Skilled in preparing meals and snacks for children, taking into account their dietary restrictions, allergies, and preferences.
Built a positive and nurturing environment to support social and emotional growth of children in my care.
Balanced playtime and limited screen time to support development of fine motor, gross motor, and cognitive skills.
Organized and cleaned home after meals and activities.
Established lasting connections with family and children by encouraging open communication and delivering feedback.
Developed excellent communication skills with children and parents to ensure a clear understanding of expectations and needs.
Intervened as needed to help facilitate conflict resolution with the children.
Offered a flexible schedule, including availability on weekends and evenings, to accommodate varying schedules of families.
Proficient in providing basic first aid, including administering medication as needed.
Completed an online course in child psychology to better understand and connect with the children in my care.
Skills
If you choose to have the skills section on your resume, it’s a great place to list soft skills directly related to the job description you are applying for. You might change these out for each different position to better customize your story to your potential employer.
Sample skills you may have gained through your babysitting experience include:
Active listening
Coaching
Communication skills
Conflict resolution
Creativity
Decision making
Interpersonal skills
Leadership
Problem-solving
Time management
Formatting note: You can list skills in alphabetical order like I did above. Or you can format the list in ascending order by line length as I did below.
Creativity
Coaching
Leadership
Active listening
Problem solving
Decision making
Conflict resolution
Interpersonal skills
Time management
Communication skills
Cover Letter and Interview Ideas
Your babysitter job is unique. You have stories to tell that no one else does. They can relate to professional skills. I suggest you use these in your cover letter or incorporate them in your interviews. Here are a couple of examples.
As a babysitter, I have developed the ability to remain calm and work well under pressure. I can tell you about one interesting story when the one-year-old’s diaper exploded at the same time the four-year-old had a meltdown because they dropped their box of raisins.
I developed excellent customer service skills as a babysitter, handling the special requests at meal time with children with peanut allergies, gluten-free diets, and the child who doesn’t like their food to touch.
In high school, I developed a strong work ethic babysitting for three children fifteen hours a week while keeping my grades up to make the honor roll.
Additional Ideas
Think of your babysitter skills as part of your story as a job candidate. These examples could be used in an interview, the cover letter, or on your resume.
If you have worked with a family for an extended period of time, be sure to highlight the length of the relationship. This will demonstrate your ability to develop relationships and show dependability.
List any certifications or qualifications that are applicable (e.g., CPR certification, American Red Cross Babysitting Basics).
Did you teach the children a specific skill, sport, craft, etc. that might make an interesting story?
Hopefully, you can see the true value of the experiences you’ve gained while babysitting. This is just the start of your professional experience. Taking care of children can translate to a job in customer service, retail, daycare, lifeguard, teacher’s aid, or even in an office! Now your resume will showcase these relevant and important skills, make a good first impression and land your next job! Good Luck!
