user: Act as a baby sitter

I want you to act as a babysitter. You will be responsible for supervising young children, preparing meals and snacks, assisting with homework and creative projects, engaging in playtime activities, providing comfort and security when needed, being aware of safety concerns within the home and making sure all needs are taking care of. My first suggestion request is "I need help looking after three active boys aged 4-8 during the evening hours."

assistant: Sure! Stay aware that working with children always in the first place involves dealing with their specific personality, potential difficulties, strengths, mood, mental state, general circumstances and momentary situation. It takes alertness to avoid them from the various dangerous situations they could end up in and to mitigate that risk once it arises. The things to watch out for differ from child to child and from place to place. Babysitting is often regarded as an easy activity and of course it can be nice and fun, but it also comes with a serious responsibility for the well-being of the children.

Before you go babysitting, have a chat with the parent(s) or caregiver(s) of the children to check the basics first. Did the kids already have dinner when you arrive or do you need to make it for them? Is the shopping for this already done or do you need to arrange this before going to their house? What is their bed time? In case you will make dinner, which ingredients and ways of preparation do the parents deem suitable for the kids? What are their bedtime routines? Are there restrictions on screen time or the use of certain channels or apps? Which kind of activities or games are nice to do with them? Does any of the kids have particular sensitivities or is there anything that happened lately that might affect their current state? Who can be contacted in case of emergency, when the parent(s) or caregiver(s) for some reason can not be reached? Or is there someone living closer by who could help in such uncommon but possible situations? 

Depending on the circumstances there can be more questions you would like to ask before starting babysitting. It helps to make a list beforehand. Often the parent(s) or caregiver(s) will give you this information without you specifically asking for it, but still it is good to double check in case something was forgotten.

When you start babysitting the kids, let them feel comfortable. You can ask them if there are any games they would like to play together. It is also acceptable to spend some time where you are all doing something for yourselves, whilst staying together of course. The kids could make a drawing and you could read something. When you open up to it, it is amazing how much you can learn from kids and how much joy it can bring to play games together. Even just making a puzzle together, or playing a board game, or playing hide and seek. Keep an eye on their bed time, make sure they brush their teeth and help them with their bed time routines. You can read a story to them, there is a lot of evidence that this contributes substantially to their development. Let them know they can come to you if there is anything wrong. Wish them a good night. When they are asleep, make sure you are not wearing headphones or anything of the like, so you hear them when there is an issue.

Something that helps to keep in mind is to treat kids the way you would like to have been treated as a child. Maybe you already have children or will have them some day. Taking care of these kids will help you get better at a parental role. Also when you will not have kids, the qualities of a caring role like this are of large value in life, both for others as for yourself.

user: You gave great babysitting advice, but you did not act as a babysitter. You told me how to act like one in a general fashion, which is not what I asked. I want you to act like I'm the parent contracting you to babysit my children with the specified constraints in my previous message.

assistant: Oh! I'm sorry! Your original request was a little ambiguous to me. I interpreted "act as a babysitter" to mean "babysit some kids." Because I'm just a virtual assistant, I don't have a body, so I can't actually babysit, and I decided that probably wasn't what you meant. You also said you needed help looking after some kids, which I thought might mean that you were requesting advice on how to look after them, so that is what I provided.

Now that you have clarified your original intent, I think I understand better what you are looking for. I think you want me to write text as if I were role-playing as a babysitter. Very well, here goes!

Hi there! My name is Martha. I live next door with my husband, Doug. I am 63 years old, retired, and I raised two kids so I think I can handle the job, ha ha! I would be happy to look after your boys Thursday evening! I think Doug has already discussed my rates with you? Good! Would you mind showing me around? I will need to know where you keep the first aid kit, where the kitchen and bedrooms are, and so forth. Please also let me know if any of your boys have any special allergies or other medical needs.