List the overall months and years in which you babysat, even if you only did it sporadically and/or for different families during that time. When you format your resume, start the Experience section with a heading like “Relevant Experience” or “Professional Experience. ” Then list your jobs in reverse chronological order, including the name of each job, it’s location, and the dates you worked there. For example, a babysitting listing would read “Childcare Provider, Buffalo, New York, May 2018- Present” or “Babysitter, Self-Employed, Seattle, Washington, June 2015- January 2019. ” If you’ve had a few long-term babysitting roles and are making a resume to apply for another childcare role, you may want to break this rule and list out different roles individually. This way, you can highlight your most relevant experience and demonstrate your ability to commit to the families you work for. [2] X Research source
Did you provide childcare on a regular schedule and get paid by the week or month? You may want to include the title “nanny” rather than “babysitter. ” Although the terminology is up for debate, nannies tend to have permanent work as full-time employees and are more involved in the child’s ongoing care and development.
On your resume, include this description directly underneath the listing for the job. You can format it as either bullet points or a short paragraph. For example, you could describe a babysitting role with a paragraph like this: “Cared for children from ages 2-9 during evenings and occasionally overnight. Prepared meals and ensured children were fed, bathed, and put to bed. Assisted children with school homework and assigned reading activities. ”[5] X Research source You might describe a more long-term position as: “Cared for 2 children aged 4 and 6 between school hours and parents’ return from work. Coordinated play dates and school pick-ups with other families. Created innovative and educational games that helped to advance both children’s reading abilities. ”
Include descriptions of duties like coordinating children’s activities, managing difficult personalities, negotiating pay rate, preparing food, and helping with homework. Describe your relevant experiences in a professional way. For example, you might write “resolved conflict situations” rather than “broke up fights between two brothers. “[7] X Research source For example, if you’re applying for a teaching position, make sure your description of your babysitting roles include any academic assistance you provided as a caregiver, such as tutoring, guidance with homework, or reading help. [8] X Research source
Start this section of your resume with a heading that reads “Skills” and format it as a list with a single bullet point for each skill. If you’re not applying for a childcare-specific role, babysitting courses may be less relevant and you can leave them off if you need to conserve space on your resume. First aid and CPR certifications, however, are relevant to more types of positions— including most roles in the service industry— so you may want to keep these on.
If you’ve worked with children with a specific disability, this is also a great skill to add to your list. For example, you could include “well-versed in caring for children with autism and Down syndrome” as a bullet point under the skills section. [11] X Research source
Babysitting helps you develop many soft skills that will be applicable to other jobs, including patience, problem solving, conflict resolution, communication and relationship building, multitasking, scheduling, and self-reliance. If you can, demonstrate these soft skills with examples in the Experience section of your resume. For example, you could list “time management and scheduling” as a bullet point under the Skills heading and also include “coordinated play dates, sports practices, tutoring and other scheduling for 3 children” in one of your job descriptions.
Generally, you’ll want to create a separate document just for references, since they take up a lot of valuable space on the page. However, if completed resume is looking too empty, you can choose to include your references as a separate section at the bottom of your resume itself.
If you don’t have any previous work experience, you can also ask teachers and mentors from your school, family members (bonus points if you’ve ever watched their children or pets!), religious leaders, or volunteer coordinators. If you’ve ever worked as a tutor, camp counselor, swim instructor, or sports coach, your supervisors and colleagues may be able to provide strong references for you since they can speak to your ability to work with children.
Ask people to serve as references before you actually apply to jobs. That way, you won’t have to scramble when your potential employer asks you for your reference list. [15] X Research source
For example, you could list a parent you’ve previously babysat for as “Anne Johnson, Former Childcare Client, 712-446-9902, ajohnson@gmail. com. ” A former professional employer could be included with a listing such as “Timothy Firth, Manager, Stintville YMCA Day Camp, 212-445-6689, timfirth@stintvilleymca. org. ”
