Please help us through adjusting to the new babysitter!

[gaialice]

Hi,
the babysitter who cares for my dds (age almost 6 and 4) recently left after about a year with us. The new babysitter seems to be really struggling with the girls. I work full time, so she is supposed to:
- pick them up from pre-school on Monday, Tuesday and Thursday
- drive them them home or to activities (or accompany by public transport, depending)
- spend the whole day with them on Wednesday b'se there is no pre-school.
I do not do punishments/rewards and the girls are not used to these things and they do not work with them, or, perhaps they do, in the school environment b'se there are other kids there. But they do not work outside of school. I have a very goofy, playful approach to things and also, more and more, I rely on routines. Only thing is, it is damn hard to establish routines with them and I think they only work with me b'se they love me. They do not seem to care much for the poor babysitter although she is very sweet. She is totally overwelmed, they run from her in the street, refuse to go out with her to activities, what shall I do? : :

[Artmama]

I just wanted to sympathise with you, I am always struggling with babysitting issues. My only advice is to give it a little time, and talk to the babysitter a TON about things, really give her room to talk to you about the struggles or she will probably feel she is failing and maybe quit. I went to my new sitter every day after work and just tried to listen to her about how it was going. She was not used to a child being so vocal and verbal and talking about her feelings all the time. She needed some time to become attached to my DD and vice versa. But also remember sometimes it just isnt a good fit, so if after a while things havent settled down, it may be that your kids just arent responding well to her for some reason.

[gaialice]

Thanks Artmama. You are right I need to talk to her more. Maybe I'll lend her my copy of Playful Parenting... Wednesday night I tried talking to the kids as well. Yesterday was slightly better.