COURSE TEACHES BABY SITTERS TO BE RESPONSIBLE

In the United States, baby-sitting is a major money-making enterprise for teenagers.

According to a 2005 survey by Junior Achievement, more than 11 percent of those ages 13 to 18 who work during the summer are employed as baby sitters.

For teens ages 13 and 14, baby- sitting is the biggest employer, with more than 25 percent engaged in such work.

Baby-sitting is one of the few jobs open to younger adolescents and available year-round. At age 11 or 12, many kids are hired by neighbors, relatives or other adults to watch younger children while parents go out. These youth are responsible for keeping their charges safe, but they also must be able to ensure their own safety.

Many churches, hospitals, community centers and other community organizations offer courses to teach these skills. The courses cover how to handle situations teens might face while baby-sitting, as well as basic first-aid skills, including CPR and the Heimlich maneuver.

One such program, Safe Sitter, has been around for 25 years and is recognized by the American Academy of Pediatrics for its excellence. Based in Indianapolis, the program has trained more than 350,000 adolescents and is offered at more than 850 sites throughout the country, including about 90 in Indiana.

Dr. Patricia Keener, a local pediatrician, founded the program in 1980 after the tragic death of an 18-month-old under the care of an adult baby sitter. The baby had choked, and the sitter did not know what to do. Then working at Community Hospital, Keener was so troubled by the death she told an acquaintance about it.

"I said that I'd been involved in taking care of a child who was healthy and shouldn't have died, and it just made me so sad and that it was totally preventable," said Keener. "And she said, 'Well what are you going do about it?' "

Adjustments needed

Determined, Keener offered a class at Park Tudor Middle School, hoping to teach baby sitters how to avoid these heartbreaking incidents. She quickly realized that she would need to adjust the curriculum.

"Even though these were very smart kids, they didn't know about child development. They didn't know at what age kids walked. They didn't know when they sat or when they talked. They really needed to have just some general information about being in business for (themselves), about how to set a rate, how to dress, how important it is to be somewhere on time and be responsible," she said.

"So I actually changed it as I went to meet the needs of the kids, because what I discovered was they didn't just need to know first aid; they needed to know about child development and about child care and some general information about life skills."

During her first public course at a hospital, Keener did not limit the number of people who could attend, and 50 students ages 9 to 17 showed up. She quickly realized she needed to limit her audience.

The program is now offered to kids ages 11 to 13, but older teens may attend.

The Safe Sitter program also is offered in England and Canada. Two types of courses are available: a six-hour course that teaches the basics, and a 13-hour course that is more in-depth and provides trainees more opportunities to practice their skills. Every student must perform first-aid procedures on a mannequin at each training session.

In all Safe Sitter classes, students are instructed on the need to be professional with parents and to act responsibly. They also learn how to provide assistance and comfort to a child during an emergency situation.

"We talk about how to stay calm," Keener explained. "Take a breath. Do something that lets you be in a situation where you can use the skills you have instead of just being paralyzed by fright."

The course's content has changed some during its 25 years. Safe Sitter instructors now offer advice on how to entertain children and manage problem behavior, which Keener says was specifically requested by trainees.

The information that the course provides has proved helpful even in non-baby-sitting situations. According to Keener, about 130 lives have been saved by Safe Sitter training techniques.

"Many times people have written in and said that an adult was unable to relieve an obstructed airway, and the safe sitter, who is like 13, was able to do it," she noted.

"We really have taught a lot of kids to think about the responsibility of baby-sitting, take it seriously, and understand that they're really being a bodyguard for the child and that it takes all of their attention all of the time," she said.

Personal safety

Another change is that, according to Keener, the world is not as safe as it once was. So Safe Sitter has evolved to include training on personal safety as well.

"Young people need to understand how important it is to make sure that where they're going to sit is safe, the people they're going to sit for are safe, that they've got backup available, and that their parents have all the information," she added.

Y-Press interviewed two teens who regularly baby-sit for siblings and neighbors but have never been enrolled in a first-aid course and didn't know where they could find one.

Michelle Hernandez, 15, thought a safety course would be helpful, "but it depends on how responsible the teenager is."

Likewise, Maria Rodriguez, 14, says a safety course might be a good option "just in case," although she has learned how to baby-sit through her experiences with her little brother.

Safe Sitter, as well as organizations such as the Red Cross, give certified baby sitters completion cards that verify that they have learned critical baby-sitting skills.

Michelle thinks that kind of proof would reassure parents considering hiring a sitter. "They don't have to be worrying at work or calling. They can be relaxed and feel safe," she said.

Reaching out to teens like Michelle and Maria is one of Safe Sitter's goals for the future. It also is looking at ways to bring the course to kids in other ways, such as a summer camp.

REPORTERS: Julie Kippenbrock, 12; Elaine Lynch, 12; Aja Morrow, 12.