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Most of us know enough to never leave home without giving the sitter our cell phone number, but there is plenty of other information that we don’t even think about mentioning. “By The Book: How to Take Care of My Kids” gives you a place to organize all of your family information, including all of those stray but useful facts, such as your child’s favorite stuffed animal and bedtime song.
Writing down everything should help you avoid the somewhat alarming scenario on the book’s cover – a babysitter tied to a chair, with triumphant children gloating as they hold her prisoner!
Organized in a loose-leaf binder, the book is divided into sections with tabs for easy reference. Any sitter will want to read the Emergency and Medical sections, which include a permission slip for medical treatment – something we routinely fill out for schools and day care centers, but probably don’t keep in our homes. The Basics section covers your child’s daily routine, plus school information, favorite foods and activities, and even discipline tactics. This section also gives you a place to write down household basics, including the all-important “how to operate the remote for the TV and DVD player” instructions. There is plenty of room to write on each form, and you can order extras from www.bythebookkids.com or make copies of any that will need to be frequently updated (sometimes a toddler’s favorite foods seem to change by the hour!).
Other sections are designed more for parents – imagine, one central place to keep the phone numbers of babysitters, with notes on each one. If you’re thinking of hiring a nanny, you can look through questions to ask during a job interview, and also find a sample contract to review.
The book’s loose-leaf design means that you can shuffle the pages as your child grows – and punch holes in other useful documents to put them right into the binder. Most of us are juggling so many things, we always feel like we’re forgetting to do something as we run out of the house. “How to Take Care of My Kid” spares you the stress of trying to remember all the things you need to tell the sitter before you leave.