We recently moved to a new city and got a house with an alarm system. We have never dealt with them before. My question is do you teach your babysitter how to use the alarm system and give her the code or do you just leave it off while the sitter is there? Our sitter is a highschooler who lives next door. We are not going to be out late but still, what do most folks do?
Thanks! C.
I do not use the alarm when we have a babysitter present. I have heard of SO MANY stories of alarms going off when a door was accidentally opened, etc. and the sitter is unable to reach the parent. You don't want to do that to a sitter, believe me! We only arm it when we are all going to be out of the house; my stepmom sets their alarm at night and has set it off in the morning more times than I can count.
We only set our alarm when nobody is home or when we go to bed. I would leave it off when the babysitter is over.
We never used ours when we had a sitter. We left it unarmed.
I leave mine unarmed all the time actually. I do have the babysitter chime which makes a noise when any window or door is opened and that is helpful to know so I can make sure doors are closed, etc.
Our sitter has our code and we've taught her how to use our alarm. It makes her feel safer to set it when we're out, so she does. We just call from the driveway and she opens the door for us. My mom, however, refuses to learn our alarm, so she never sets it when she babysits.
My theory is if you don't trust your sitter with your alarm code, what are you doing leaving her/him alone with your children?
I just leave it off.
good question. I was seriously just thinking about this as we have a new house/alarm and a sitter coming next week - I decided not to turn it on and not give the code out.:)
We only set our alarm when we go to bed and when we leave the house. So even though its late, as long as she's awake and at the house, the alarm stays off, although she's welcome to set it. Its not hard...just a matter of punching the right sequence of numbers and symbols.
But we do have a separate code for our sitters, so they can't get in our house when our own code is entered because ours overrides theirs.
Can you change the alarm code when she's there? Just so she's protected but doesn't know your personal code? Call the alarm system company and see if there is a guest alarm code that someone visiting can use.
Otherwise, if something comes up missing or you suspect someone has been in your home your mind will go to her first off.
I would give her a code just for her (or just for sitters). My alarm allows me to enter and delete or deactivate codes as needed so I can give a code that works today and deactivate it tonight.
I never set the alarm when we are home and awake. Seems like a good way to set the thing off on accident.
I had one sitter that got the kids on the bus, she had her own alarm code so she could set it when she left. Not a difficult thing anyway, punch in the number, walk out the door.
I would not give her the code. We only use ours when we leave. We don't even use it at night because the dog walks around and will set it off. I guess he's the nighttime alarm. And that's what I tell sitters - if you THINK you hear something, look at the dog. If he doesn't react, no need for you to worry. Dogs are great like that - much more dependable than any alarm!
Not sure what kind of keypad you have, but we are able to set multiple codes for multiple people on ours.
Depending upon the system - you need to show her the panic button at the very least.
Some you can set up to have a key fob to arm/disarm it and just use it while she is there, so she doesn't have the code.
Another is to have a "sitter code" that you can authorize for certain days/times - people do this for housekeepers/dog walkers/etc..
