After school and on the weekends, sophomore Ava Porter spends her time hanging out with friends and family and babysitting.

When Porter was around 10 years old, she would watch the neighborhood kids help out. At first, it was just a small thing to do on the weekends, until about three years ago. 

“My sister had her first kid a little over three years ago, so that’s when I got more involved with babysitting,” she said.

As for timing and what to do while babysitting, Porter describes how it “depends on the situation.” For example, it varies to how many kids and how much time she will watch them for. When the kids are younger, there’s not a whole lot you can do with them. Porter spends this time taking the kids out of the house for a walk or a trip to the neighborhood park, or she simply just watches them play with toys around the house.

When babysitting, Porter likes to keep the house clean and tends to have it cleaner than when she arrived. She does this so the parents can come home to a nice clean house and not stress about cleaning it up later. The entrepreneur also believes that to be a good babysitter you must be trustworthy, show that you are responsible and can be left alone with the children for an extended amount of time.

Some key things to keep in mind while babysitting are to arrive on time, it’s even better if you arrive 10-15 minutes early to relieve stress and get settled in. You also need to be prepared and flexible, make sure that if necessary you can work around times when the parent is gone a little longer.