Babysitter

A babysitter looks after children in the family's home, usually for a few hours in the evening or at weekends while the parents are out. It is a flexible, popular first job for responsible teenagers and students, and rewarding for anyone who is good with children and trustworthy.

Babysitter

10

Childcare & Early Years

AI IMPACT
AI CAN DO10%moving to55%
THE DOOR, NOWB
THE DOOR, 20 YRSD
STARTING PAYnot published
MOAT NOT YET CLASSIFIEDA real score, but the moat is not yet classified. No claim either way.
AI can do very little of this work today
Hands-on work, caring for people and dealing with the real world are among the hardest things to automate, and this job leans on them. We have not yet formally classified its moat, so we make no claim either way, but the exposure score speaks for itself.

The role

The work is mostly keeping children safe, happy and to their routine - playing, feeding, bathing, reading stories and getting them to bed - and tidying up afterwards. The most important part is being reliable and calm, knowing what to do if a child is upset or unwell, and keeping parents informed.

It is usually casual, cash-or-app work paid by the hour, often around or a little above minimum wage and higher in some areas or for several children. Hours are irregular and evening-heavy, and you carry real responsibility while you are the only adult in charge.

You do not need qualifications to babysit informally, and most people get started through family, friends, neighbours or babysitting apps and word of mouth. A paediatric first aid course is a big plus, and any more formal or registered childcare work brings stricter rules and background checks.

Daily responsibilities

  • Keep children safe and supervised at all times
  • Prepare snacks or meals and tidy up
  • Play games and read or do activities
  • Follow bedtime and bath routines
  • Comfort and settle upset children
  • Deal calmly with minor accidents or illness
  • Update parents on how the evening went
Careermash

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AI EXPOSURE = the share of a job's day-to-day tasks AI can already do today, from the same exposure engine used across this site (Anthropic labour market research, 2026, observed real-world AI usage by occupation). Higher means more exposed. It is a measurement of now, not a prediction. THE DOOR = how hard the job is to get into, grade A (easy) to E (extremely hard), from each career's published forecast (OpenAI, "The AI Jobs Transition Framework", Richmond 2026, CC BY 4.0). A card marked MOAT NOT YET CLASSIFIED has a real exposure score but no entry yet in our moat register, so we make no claim about what structurally protects it. Scorecard grades and verdicts are Careermash editorial judgment: we show forecasts as forecasts and own our conclusions. Salary and pathway figures are each career's own published profile. Careermash is a service provided by What School Ltd.

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