Teenagers are losing their babysitting jobs as millennial helicopter parents refuse to leave children home alone or demand they complete training courses.
Babysitting is a rite of passage for many teenagers, who are finally granted a bit of independence when a neighbor or family friend pays them to babysit for a few hours now and then.
But a new generation of parents has changed the childcare game by only hiring nannies who have specific training to care for their children, even if it’s just for a short period.
Teen babysitters still exist, but these days they have to take safety courses, learn CPR, and even get their lifeguard certificates just to be considered by picky parents.
Parents even demand that babysitters plan enriching activities for their young children before they start caring for them, according to Yasemin Besen-Cassino, a sociologist at Montclair State University and author of ‘The Cost of Being a Girl: Working Teens and the Origins of the gender pay gap.’
Teen babysitters still exist, but these days they have to take safety courses, learn CPR, and even get their lifeguard certificates just to be considered by picky parents.
While teenagers spend every moment outside of school striving to build an impressive portfolio, they certainly don’t have time to complete the intense childcare training that today’s parents require.
Besen-Cassino said The Atlantic That modern intensive parenting approach is not only to ensure the physical safety of your children, but also to ensure the future financial security of the children.
She said parents want to make sure their babysitters can use every free moment to “enrich” their children with skills.
The researcher has found that today parents want their children to stay away from screens and games and instead learn math, piano or another language.
A similar trend is being seen among teenagers missing out on babysitting jobs.
Teens are too busy signing up for SAT prep or filling the extracurricular section of their college applications to the brim with clubs, teams, and charities.
Since they spend every moment outside of school striving to create an impressive portfolio, teenagers certainly don’t have time to complete the intense childcare training that today’s parents require.
As teenagers are excluded from the child care industry because they cannot provide the qualifications most helicopter parents ask for, professional child care services are dominating the field and driving up the price of child care even further.
This has left low-income families with no choice but to rely on friends and family for unpaid child care.
Middle-class families are forced to make sacrifices to cover the average cost of a babysitter or babysitter, which can reach $26 an hour in areas like New York City and Los Angeles, according to care.com.
While the archetypal babysitter seen in pop culture is a neighborhood girl who “hangs out” with the kids while the parents go on date night and order pizza for dinner, this stereotype no longer lives up to the hype. “intensive” parenting standards.
Intensive parenting has skyrocketed in recent decades, and as technology has allowed parents to install nanny cameras, they can easily keep an eye on their nannies from their phones to ensure standards are being met.
Nanny cams are enough to deter teenagers, who don’t want to be watched by another set of parents when they are still being watched by their own.
Meanwhile, helicopter parenting has also made its way into pop culture. In Jennifer Lawrence’s romantic comedy ‘No Hard Feelings,’ a wealthy couple, played by Matthew Broderick and Laura Benanti, pays Lawrence’s character to date her son.
‘The Babysitter’s Club’ franchise set the example of what a model babysitter should be and encouraged the activity for teenagers by presenting it as fun.
However, ‘Don’t Tell Mom the Babysitter’s Dead’ (1991) is the one that best fits the current mood of teenagers around the topic of childcare: a film about what happens when a babysitter old woman dies, the story is more about the pain and responsibilities a teenager faces when taking care of the children instead of the deceased woman.
Liliana Gracie is a TikToker who shares tips and tricks for getting babysitting jobs and being a good babysitter with her 21,000 followers.
Meanwhile, helicopter parenting has also made its way into pop culture. In Jennifer Lawrence’s romantic comedy ‘No Hard Feelings,’ a wealthy couple, played by Matthew Broderick and Laura Benanti, pays Lawrence’s character to date her son.
‘The Babysitter’s Club’ franchise set the example of what a model babysitter should be and encouraged the activity for teenagers by presenting it as fun.
However, ‘Don’t Tell Mom the Babysitter’s Dead’ (1991) is the one that best fits the current mood of teenagers around the topic of childcare: a film about what happens when a babysitter old woman dies, the story is more about Pain and responsibilities that a teenager faces when taking care of the children instead of the deceased woman.
Liliana Gracie is a TikToker who shares tips and tricks for getting babysitting jobs and being a good babysitter with her 21,000 followers.
Her videos, which have garnered more than 4.2 million likes, showcase a “day in my life as a 9-3 babysitter” and “five ways to stand out as a babysitter.”
In one of her videos, Liliana recounted a terrible experience she had with a helicopter father who watched her while she took care of the children and installed cameras to monitor her at all times.
Liliana said that during the interview, the mother began reciting all kinds of hypothetical scenarios and put her on the spot by asking her how she would respond.
The teenage babysitter said she was terrified every time the mother left the house because she would be watching her every move on camera. “I didn’t even want to be inside with the child because I didn’t want to be filmed.”
Not only do teens face high standards of babysitting “training” and very limited free time, but some also face parents who even want their babysitters to clean, something not many teens do in their own homes.
A working mother on TikTok recently sparked outrage by trying to turn her nanny into a substitute housekeeper.
In a now-viral TikTok, Katrina Ivan explained that she works as a teacher and also runs a small business, leaving her little time to clean up her messy house.
In a note left for her babysitter, Katrina assured her that she was “welcome to hang out and watch TV all night,” but listed the optional list of chores with the corresponding payment.
Katrina posted a follow-up on TikTok, explaining that she updated the payout for some of the tasks after feedback from commenters.
So, in an effort to kill two birds with one stone, Katrina made a long list of the various tasks that needed to be done around her house (she attached a payment offer ranging from $3 to $15 for each task) and offered to her nanny the opportunity to “earn some extra money” by completing whatever she chose from the selection.
“Little things have been let go for too long,” the mom wrote in the caption. ‘If my nanny decides to do this, I will be forever grateful. If not, I will do it later as she had already planned.’
Teen babysitters aren’t completely extinct, but they have evolved to fit a new generation of parents and will continue to adapt as parenting trends change and technology advances.