Caring for children |
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Nurse Reading to a Little Girl
Babysitting is the practice of temporarily
caring for a child. Babysitting is commonly performed as a
job by
teenagers for extra money.
General
Babysitters are usually ages 13 and above[citation
needed]. The type of work for babysitters also
varies to the babies, from watching a sleeping child, to playing games,
preparing meals, teaching the child to read, or even driving (if the age
is right), depending on the agreement between the parents and the
babysitter.
In some countries various organizations produce courses for
babysitters, mainly focusing on child safety and first aid appropriate
for infants and children. These classes or courses can be provided at
local hospitals and sometimes even schools. These classes can equip the
babysitter with information to keep both the child, or children, and
sitter safe in various health and weather scenarios.
Word History
The term "baby sitter" first appeared in 1937, while the verb form
"baby-sit" was first recorded in 1947.[1]
The American Heritage College Dictionary notes "One
normally would expect the agent noun babysitter with its -er
suffix to come from the verb baby-sit, as diver comes from
dive, but in fact babysitter is first recorded in 1937,
ten years earlier than the first appearance of baby-sit. Thus the
verb was derived from the agent noun rather than the other way around,
and represents a good example of
back-formation."[2]
The use of the word "sit" to abbreviate to refer to a baby-sitter is
recorded from 1800[citation
needed]. The term may have originated from the
action of the caretaker "sitting on" the baby in one room, while the
parents were entertaining or busy in another.
International variations in definition
In
British English the term refers only to caring for a child for a few
hours, on an informal basis and usually in the evening when the child is
asleep for most of the time.[citation
needed] In
American English the term can include caring for a child for the
whole or most of the day, and on a regular or more formal basis, which
would be described as
childminding in British English.
In
Pakistan a babysitter or nanny is known as an
ayah or aya, a person hired on a longer term contract
basis to look after a child regardless of the presence of the parents.
References
Notes
-
^
"baby, n.", OED Online, Oxford: Oxford University
Press, 2010, retrieved
2011-02-28
-
^
"baby-sit",
The American Heritage College Dictionary, Boston:
Houghton Mifflin, 2002, p. 103
Bibliography
- Miriam Forman-Brunell. Babysitter: An American History. New York
University Press, June, 2009.
External links