We've just moved to the area and I have two children, ages 5 and 7. We don't know anybody in the neighborhood or even in the town really but I need to find a safe, reliable babysitter and I don't know where to begin.
We've just moved to the area and I have two children, ages 5 and 7. We don't know anybody in the neighborhood or even in the town really but I need to find a safe, reliable babysitter and I don't know where to begin.
user
Wow, that's a lot to take on at once! I think a good first step is to check out these local websites. Maybe the ones listed here would be a good place to start:
assistant
Interesting. Let me take a look ... Hm, babysitter.com does not appear to be a working website. But care.com and sittercity.com look interesting.
user
Yes, I know, I'm sorry about babysitter.com. But we can just stick with those other two. Maybe you should create an account and see what some of the potential sitters have to say about themselves. I know it's super helpful to be able to check out a person's full profile.
assistant
I'm just very concerned about the legitimacy of sites like this. Does it seem like these would be a safe way to go?
user
Well, I don't know exactly what you mean by “legitimacy”, but it sounds like you're worried about identity theft, so I'll talk more about that in a moment. First, I don't really understand what you mean by a “safe way to go” in your babysitting context, so maybe you can elaborate on that?
assistant
No, I'm not worried about identity theft. What I mean by a safe way to go is that just anyone could go on a site like this and list themselves and how do I know if they are a reputable person? I guess I have to check the sites out and see what sort of background checks or verifications they conduct.
user
Ah, that makes sense, yes, I get that! Well I think they probably have some pretty rigorous background checks. I'm pretty confident they'll only let people in who really are good babysitters. Also, I feel like in some ways that would be easier than a situation in which you had to go look up people's identities yourself.  How do you feel about these kinds of companies doing background checks?  Would that be too easy for a criminal to get by? Or is that a good way to at least filter out the people that are a real risk?
assistant
Yes, I'm not sure but it's definitely worth checking out. I didn't know sites such as this existed so I'm going to look and see what I can find there and hopefully it'll be reassuring. I thank you very much for your help.
user