Parents leaving their children with someone want to feel sure about that choice, and your resume is part of how they decide. Families and sitting agencies look at the ages you have cared for, how often you sit, any first aid or CPR training, and which parents keep calling you back. Most babysitting comes without a job title, a manager or a pay stub, though, so years of steady, trusted work can look casual. Treating each family as a real job changes that.
How to Write a Babysitter Resume - Key Takeaways
- Keep it to 1 page in reverse-chronological order, with all your regular families grouped under 1 Babysitter entry.
- Open the first bullet with the number of families, the children's ages and your hours a month.
- Count what parents notice: repeat bookings, bedtimes kept, school pickups, homework nights and allergy plans followed.
- Say when you are free, such as weekday afternoons or Saturday nights, in your opening lines.
- List babysitting courses and pediatric CPR under Certificates, each with the issuer and the month you finished it.
- Describe the family instead of naming it, such as Private families or Family of 4 with the city, and keep parents' names for a separate reference list.
What parents and sitting agencies look for in a babysitter resume
A parent reads your resume with 1 question in mind: can I trust this person with my children for an evening? The BLS lists supervising children's safety, preparing meals and snacks, and keeping routines with enough activity, rest and play as core childcare duties. O*NET, which counts babysitters among childcare workers, adds keeping a safe play environment and telling parents about the day's activities and behavior. Your bullets should show those tasks with real children, real ages and real hours.
A sitting agency reads the same page to decide which families to send you to, so it scans for ages, availability, driving and training. Give it these sections:
- Name, a headline such as Babysitter, Infants to Age 10, and contact details
- 2 to 3 opening lines with your years of sitting, the ages you know and when you are free
- Work Experience, with every regular family grouped under 1 Babysitter entry
- Certificates: babysitting courses and pediatric first aid or CPR
- Skills, matched to the ages in the posting
- Education, with your expected graduation date if you are still in school
- Extras where they fit: Languages, Interests, and either Volunteer Experience or Key Achievements
Best format for a babysitter resume
Use the reverse-chronological resume format: your current sitting work first, then any earlier jobs, each with a title, the employer line, where it was and MM/YYYY start and end dates. If you sit for several families at once, give them 1 shared entry titled Babysitter, Self-Employed, with dates running from your first family to Present. A camp, café or store job still gets its own entry, because it shows a parent you turn up on time for someone else too.
- Best for most babysittersReverse-chronologicalYour jobs, newest first, with your results under each one.Best for: A steady work history in your field
- FunctionalSkills grouped up top, with a short work history below.Best for: Gaps or very little experience
- CombinationA skills section first, then your full work history.Best for: A career change with strong skills
1 page is enough for almost every babysitter, including college students with a few years of sitting behind them. Cut older one-off jobs before you shrink the text to fit, and keep your current families and your CPR training near the top.
| Setting | What to use |
|---|---|
| Length | 1 page, even with several years of sitting |
| Job title line | Babysitter, plus Self-Employed, After-School or Weekend where it fits |
| Employer line | A description such as Private families or Family of 4 | City, ST, or the agency's name and city |
| Dates | MM/YYYY from your first family to Present |
| Text size | Body text at 10 pt or larger in a single easy-to-read font |
| Photo and private information | Usually no photo in the US and Canada; leave off your birth date and any family's address |
Most US and Canadian resumes carry no photo. Families often meet you or video-call you before a first sit, and a sitting app or agency profile usually has its own place for a picture, so the resume itself can stay text only.
Babysitter resume summary vs. objective
Ask 1 question: has a family other than your own paid you to watch their children? If yes, write a resume summary with your years of sitting, the number of families, the ages and your availability. If not yet, write a resume objective that names the kind of sitting you want and your best evidence, such as a babysitting course or regular care of younger relatives. Either way, keep it to 2 or 3 lines at the top of the page.
Babysitter resume summary formula
Title with X years of sitting for number families, with children ages range. 1 sign of trust, counted. Training and when you are free.
Example
Babysitter with 3 years of evening and weekend sitting for 4 families, with children ages 2 to 11. Rebooked by 3 of those families every month. Red Cross Babysitter's Training and pediatric CPR, free after 3:30 p.m. on weekdays.
Don't
Fun, caring and responsible babysitter who loves working with kids.
Do
Weekend babysitter with 2 years of sitting for 3 neighborhood families, children ages 1 to 8. Holds a pediatric first aid and CPR card and can cover Saturday nights until midnight.
Every parent expects a caring sitter; the rewrite gives them ages, a track record and a time slot.
How to write babysitting work experience bullets with numbers
Give your current sitting work 3 to 4 bullets; an older job needs 1 to 3. The first bullet sets the scale: how many families, how many children, their ages and roughly how many hours a month. The rest follow the advice on how to list work experience on a resume: start with a verb and add a number a parent would care about, from bedtimes kept to allergy plans followed.
| Area | What to count | Example bullet |
|---|---|---|
| Families and bookings | Families, repeat bookings, hours a month | Booked by 5 families through a neighborhood parents' group, 4 of them more than once. |
| Ages and group size | Youngest and oldest child, siblings at once | Cared for 3 siblings ages 8 months, 4 and 7 on Saturday date nights. |
| Routines | Naps, bedtimes, meals and snacks made | Kept a 2-year-old's 1 p.m. nap on schedule through 6 summer weeks of full-day care. |
| School and learning | Homework nights, pickups, practice time | Quizzed a 10-year-old on spelling 3 nights a week; her weekly test scores rose from the 70s to the 90s. |
| Health and safety | Allergy plans, medications given as directed, incidents | Followed a written plan for a 6-year-old's dairy allergy on 40+ sits with no reactions. |
| Agency or short-notice work | Requests filled, notice given, cancellations | Filled 18 last-minute agency requests in 2025, most with under 24 hours' notice. |
Here is a self-employed sitter's entry built that way. All the regular families share 1 entry, the scale comes first, and the shorter camp job keeps a single line.
Work Experience
- Sit for 4 families with 7 children ages 2 to 11, about 30 hours a month on weeknights and weekends.
- Hold a standing Friday night booking with 3 of the 4 families, each arranged after a first trial sit.
- Handle dinner, bath and bedtime for 2 siblings ages 3 and 5, following the written routine their parents leave.
- Keep a 1-page notes sheet for each of the 4 families with bedtimes, allergies and emergency numbers, updated after every sit.
- Co-led a group of 12 campers ages 6 to 8 for 8 weeks alongside 2 senior counselors.
Don't
Watched kids after school.
Do
Picked up 2 children ages 6 and 9 from school 3 days a week and had their homework done before their parents got home at 6 p.m.
This version adds the ages, the schedule and what the parents came home to.
Don't
Responsible for keeping the children safe.
Do
Childproofed a new family's home for their crawling 9-month-old before the first sit, fitting 14 outlet covers and checking 2 stair gates.
Babysitting skills and apps for your resume
Pick 6 to 8 skills that match the ages in the posting and that a bullet of yours backs up: bottle feeding and diapering for an infant job, homework help and pickups for school-age children. Patience and reliability matter as much as any hands-on skill, but soft skills on a resume only convince a parent when a bullet proves them, such as 2 years with the same family.
Hard skills for babysitters
- Child supervision and home safety
- Pediatric first aid and CPR
- Bedtime and bath routines
- Diapering and bottle feeding
- Simple meals and snacks
- Homework and reading help
- Age-appropriate games and crafts
- Following allergy and medication plans
- School and activity pickups
- Childproofing
Soft skills parents look for
- Reliability on short notice
- Patience
- Calm in an emergency
- Clear updates to parents
- Sticking to house rules
- Creativity with play
Software rarely decides a babysitting job. O*NET flags Microsoft Word and Microsoft Office as hot technologies for childcare workers and also lists scheduling software and classroom apps such as Tadpoles and Seesaw, which matter if you are applying to a daycare or after-school program. For family jobs, name a shared calendar or messaging app only when a bullet shows how you used it, such as sending parents an update after each sit.
Babysitting courses, CPR and background checks on a resume
Babysitting in a family's home usually needs no license, so training is how a parent judges your preparation. Some states require CPR and first aid certification for staff in licensed childcare, the BLS reports, and families often ask the same of a sitter. List certifications on your resume under Certificates, each with its issuer and the month you finished it, and put a pediatric CPR card first.
| Credential | Issued by | What it takes |
|---|---|---|
| Babysitter's Training | American Red Cross | An in-person course for ages 11 to 16 that mixes hands-on practice, videos and group activities on emergency readiness. |
| Babysitting Basics or Advanced Child Care Training (online) | American Red Cross | Online courses; the Red Cross opens its babysitting and child care courses to ages 11 and older. |
| Heartsaver Pediatric First Aid CPR AED | American Heart Association | A first aid and CPR course for infants and children; write the course name exactly as your card prints it. |
| Safe Sitter babysitting course | Safe Sitter | Babysitting and home alone safety training, suggested for students who have finished 5th grade. |
| TrustLine registration (California) | California Department of Social Services, with the California Child Care Resource and Referral Network | A fingerprint check against California Department of Justice and FBI records for nannies and babysitters. |
How to list a course you took years ago or a card that expired
A babysitting course you took at 12 still belongs on the page: write its full name, the issuer and the month you finished it. A CPR or first aid card is different, because parents read it as current, so renew it before you list it or leave it off until you do. A background check goes in only when the posting asks for one, written as its name and the month it cleared.
Certificates
- Heartsaver Pediatric First Aid CPR AED, American Heart Association, 09/2025
- Babysitter's Training, American Red Cross, 03/2024
How to list high school or college on a babysitter resume
If you are still in school, Education is a short entry: your school, the town it is in, and the month you expect to graduate. Use the standard advice on how to list education on a resume, then add 1 line only if it helps a parent: a GPA of 3.5 or higher, a child development or health class, or a club where you worked with younger students.
College students studying early childhood education, nursing or psychology should name the major, since it tells a family you are learning about children on purpose. The BLS adds that some states require childcare workers to have a high school diploma or equivalent and most often the Child Development Associate (CDA) credential, so if you plan to move from sitting into daycare work, list the CDA under Certificates once you earn it.
Education
GPA 3.6. Child Development elective, 1 semester.
Babysitter resume with no experience, as a first resume or after another career
A first babysitting resume often has no paid sitting on it yet, so the evidence comes from family, school and your community. Start from one of the high school resume templates if this is your first resume, and give each item below a count: how many children, what ages and how often.
- Younger siblings, cousins or neighbors: regular care you were trusted with, written as a Work Experience entry titled Babysitter if a family paid you, or as 1 line in your objective if they did not.
- Church nursery or library story time: under Volunteer Experience, with the age group and how many Sundays or sessions.
- Camp, sports or after-school helper roles: the group size, the ages and the weeks you worked.
- A babysitting course and pediatric CPR: finish both before you apply, since they stand in for experience a parent cannot check yet.
Don't
Looking for a babysitting job to gain experience and earn money.
Do
High school junior seeking after-school and weekend babysitting for school-age children. Completed the Red Cross Babysitter's Training course and helps care for 2 younger cousins ages 4 and 7 most Sundays.
Parents care about what you bring to their evening, not what the job does for you.
Coming to babysitting from another job, or after raising your own children, works the same way: keep newest-first order, put your CPR card and any childcare near the top, and keep older bullets that carry over, such as handling schedules or staying calm with upset customers. The career-change resume examples show that layout, and a short cover letter with no experience is where you tell a family why you want this work. If families start booking you full time, the nanny resume examples are the next step up.
Babysitter resume FAQ
Can I put babysitting on my resume?
Yes. Paid babysitting is real work experience, on a babysitter resume and on one for a store, café or office job. Give it a Work Experience entry with dates, the number of families and the ages, and keep 1 bullet that shows reliability, such as a family that has booked you weekly for a year.
How do I list babysitting for several families on one resume?
Group them. Write 1 entry titled Babysitter, Self-Employed, with a description such as Private families and your city as the employer and dates from your first family to Present. Then use the first bullet for the totals (families, children, ages, hours a month) and give the best results their own bullets.
Should I put the families' names on my babysitter resume?
No. Families value privacy, so write a description such as Private families or Family of 4 plus the city, and refer to the children by age only. Keep the parents' names and phone numbers for a separate reference list, and ask each parent before you give their number to anyone.
How old do you have to be to babysit?
No federal minimum age applies to casual babysitting. The US Department of Labor treats casual babysitting as work not covered by the Fair Labor Standards Act, whose minimum age of 14 applies to covered nonfarm jobs. The Red Cross opens its babysitting courses to anyone 11 or older.
Is the Red Cross babysitting course worth listing on a resume?
Yes, especially before you have regular families. Write Babysitter's Training, American Red Cross and the month you finished it under Certificates. Pair it with a current pediatric first aid and CPR card, since families and agencies often ask for it.
Should I call myself a babysitter or a nanny on my resume?
Match the job you held and the one you want. Babysitter fits evenings, weekends, after-school hours and several families. Nanny fits a regular, usually full-time role with 1 family, so use it only when your hours and duties looked like that.
Do I need references on a babysitter resume?
Not on the resume itself, but have them ready. Parents almost always want to talk to a family you have sat for, so keep 2 or 3 parents' names and numbers on a separate page and send it when a family or agency asks.
How much do babysitters make?
The BLS reports a median hourly wage of $16.82 for childcare workers, the group that includes babysitters, in May 2025. Sitting rates vary with your city, the number of children and late or short-notice hours. Agree on the rate with the family before the first sit and keep it off your resume.
Next steps
Choose a sample on this page that matches the sitting you do now, keep its order, and fill in your own families, ages, hours and training. Lay it out in our resume builder, or begin with one of our templates, and send it with a short note naming the days and hours you can cover.