The Info Every Babysitter Needs: A Complete Checklist

The info every babysitter needs comes down to three things: how to reach you, what to do in an emergency, and the specifics of your kids — and all of it should be written down, not rattled off at the door. The two minutes you spend on your way out are the worst time to explain a bedtime routine and a peanut allergy, and it's the worst time for a sitter to absorb them. This checklist covers everything a babysitter needs, why writing it down matters, and how to keep it ready so you're not scribbling a fresh note every single time.

Most parents do the babysitter handoff verbally, on the way out the door, half-distracted. The sitter nods along and forgets two-thirds of it before you've reached the car. That's not the sitter's fault — it's a bad system. A written checklist fixes it in one step.

What information should you leave a babysitter?

A babysitter needs three groups of information, and a complete handoff covers all three. Here's the full checklist.

How to reach adults

• Your cell number, and where you'll be tonight.
• A second parent or guardian's number.
• A backup adult — a trusted neighbor or relative — in case you can't be reached.
• The name and number of a nearby neighbor who could come over fast.

Emergency and medical

• 911, and Poison Control — 1-800-222-1222.
• Your child's pediatrician.
• Your full home address — obvious to you, but a sitter may have to read it to a dispatcher.
• Any allergies, medications, and doses, plus where the first-aid kit is.

The kid specifics

• Meal and snack rules, and anything off-limits.
• Bedtime and the steps that go with it.
• Comfort items, screen limits, and any words or routines that calm a meltdown.
• House basics the sitter will need — where the exits are, how to lock up, and where supplies live.

The American Academy of Pediatrics frames the essentials the same way: make sure whoever watches your child has a list of all emergency phone numbers, where you can be reached, and the numbers of trusted neighbors, relatives, and your pediatrician.

What emergency numbers does a babysitter need most?

The two a babysitter must have, no matter what, are 911 and Poison Control. The AAP specifically recommends displaying 911 and the poison control number (1-800-222-1222) near the phone or adding them to the sitter's contacts before you leave. Poison Control is free, confidential, and staffed by experts around the clock, and it's the number people most often wish they'd had saved when a toddler gets into something. After those two, the priority order is your cell, a backup adult, your pediatrician, and your home address.

Should you write it down or just tell them?

You should always write it down — a verbal handoff is the single most common way babysitter information fails. Under stress, no one recalls a phone number or an allergy from memory, and a first-time sitter has nothing to fall back on. A written or shared checklist means the information is physically there in the moment, which is the only version that helps when something actually goes wrong. It also protects the sitter, who shouldn't be expected to memorize your household on a two-minute briefing.

How do you keep babysitter info ready without rewriting it every time?

You keep it ready by storing it in a reusable form instead of scribbling a fresh note before every night out. Most of the information — your contacts, your kids' medical details, the routines — doesn't change from sitter to sitter, so writing it out each time is wasted effort and an invitation to forget something. A saved sheet or a shared family app holds the standing details and lets you update only what's new. Storing it somewhere shared has a second benefit: any trusted adult can pull it up, not just the parent who happened to write it. That's the same principle behind keeping your whole household's important information shared, which our complete guide to family organization gets into.

How Tell Chester keeps your babysitter info ready

Tell Chester includes a family vault made for exactly this: a shared place to keep your emergency contacts, your children's medications and allergies, your pediatrician, and the routines a sitter needs — ready to hand over in seconds and reachable by every trusted adult, not just one parent. Because it lives in the same app as your chores, shopping, and meals, it's somewhere the family already looks, and it stays current because anyone can update it. No more rewriting the same note before every date night. You can see how the vault fits with the rest on the Tell Chester family organization app page.

Frequently asked questions