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By Bahk Eun-ji
Parents want to check a babysitter's career and criminal record, but this is uncommon because most of them hire babysitters through introduction from acquaintances, a survey showed, Monday.
According to the survey conducted by Korea Institute of Child Care and Education of 939 parents who have hired babysitters, 40.8 percent said they wanted to check the babysitter's personal information, including criminal record, because the most important thing is whether or not the babysitter is reliable.
The second-most important thing was the person's experience at 35.4 percent, followed by the sitters' academic background, 6.8 percent, and his or her health with 5.2 percent.
However, 75.6 percent of the parents hired their sitters through introduction from acquaintances including relatives, and this made it difficult for them to get an objective review and information about the sitters. Another 9.4 percent said they were introduced to the babysitters by postpartum helpers, and 8.8 percent used the bulletin board of their neighborhood community.
For the reasons of hiring babysitters, the parents said they though the children were too young to send to a childcare institute, while others said they could not use the institute they wanted. Parents on average pay 1.09 million won monthly to sitters, but 22.8 percent pay more than 1.5 million won.
Although the government is providing a childcare service at a lower cost than the private sector, only 49.8 percent of parents surveyed were aware of the service.
The respondents did not want a public service specifically, but wanted tax relief for using private babysitting services, education programs for sitters and the adoption of a certification system for babysitter agencies.
