Free printable, PDF
You know the scene. The sitter is at the door, you are half out of it, and you are shouting the bedtime, where the EpiPen is and the neighbor's name over your shoulder. This sheet puts it on paper. Page one is today at a glance: your numbers, where you are, each kid's allergies, meds and bedtime, and what to read to a 911 dispatcher. Page two is the house: rules, screens, snacks, where things are, the plan for the evening. Download, fill in, leave on the counter. No email, no sign-up.
What goes on a babysitter information sheet, in one sentence: both parents' cell numbers, where you are and when you will be back, each kid's name, age, allergies, medications and bedtime, your home address written out for a 911 dispatcher, Poison Control, a nearby neighbor and the pediatrician, then house rules, screens, snacks, where the first aid kit is, the plan for the evening, and the comforts and quirks that get your kid to sleep for someone who is not you.
Block by block
Most babysitter sheets online are a wall of boxes. Ours has ten blocks, and every one of them is something a sitter has actually had to ask, or should have. Here is what each block is for.
Two names, two cells. The sitter texts whoever answers first, which is rarely the one whose phone is in a bag under a restaurant table. If only one of you is out, the second line is still useful: it is the first person who can get home in ten minutes.
The place matters if a sitter has to tell someone where you are. The time matters more than you think: "back by 10:30" is the answer to the question your six year old will ask eleven times, and it is the line that lets the sitter say "they said bed at 8" with your authority behind it.
One row per child, so nothing gets mixed up between the kid with the peanut allergy and the kid who takes the antibiotic. Age, because a dispatcher or a nurse line asks for it first. Allergies with the reaction and where the EpiPen or inhaler lives. Meds with the dose, the time it is due and the time of the last dose you gave, because doubling up is the most common mistake a sitter makes with the best intentions. Bedtime as a time, not "around 8".
Written plainly, because a nervous sitter will otherwise spend four minutes trying to reach you before calling for help. Poison Control, 1-800-222-1222 in the US, is printed on the sheet, with a space to write your own country's line instead. It is free, answered around the clock, and it is the call for the "she licked the dishwasher pod" moment that is not quite a 911.
The line parents skip because it feels obvious. It is not obvious to a 17 year old who has been to your house twice and arrived by someone else's car. A dispatcher will ask for the house number, the unit, the cross street and the gate code, and phone location is not precise enough to send an ambulance to the right door. Write it the way you would read it aloud.
The neighbor is the person who can be at the door in five minutes with a spare key, before you can be. The pediatrician's number is for the after-hours line: the fever that is 101.4 and climbing, the fall that might need a look. Those calls are the ones a sitter most wants permission to make.
Your seven year old will tell the sitter, with a straight face, that you allow ice cream for dinner and the tablet until bed. Writing down the three rules you actually enforce, the screen limit and what counts as a snack takes the negotiation off the sitter and puts it on a piece of paper. Kids argue less with paper.
First aid kit, thermometer and the children's medicine, a flashlight, the wifi password, the spare key and how the door locks, and the pet's food and leash. Each of these is a text you will otherwise get at 7:40 during the one quiet part of your evening.
A short time and what table: 5:30 dinner, 6:30 bath, 7:00 books, 7:30 lights out. A sitter who knows the sequence runs it. A sitter who does not know it waits for a kid to volunteer the next step, and no kid has ever volunteered bath.
The rabbit is called Pancake and does not sleep anywhere but the left pillow. The hall light stays on. Ethan will claim he is allowed to sleep in your bed. This is the block sitters thank you for, and it is the one no template includes.
Page 1
The page that gets taped to the fridge. Everything a sitter needs in the first ten seconds of a bad moment is on it, in the order they would need it. Fill in the top half right before you leave and the emergency block once.
Page 2
The house, the rules, and how the evening usually goes. Most of this page stays the same from one sitter to the next, so fill it in once, photograph it, and reprint it with the new date on page one.
Using it
US Letter in the United States and Canada, A4 everywhere else. One copy is tonight's. The other becomes your master: fill in everything that does not change, and photocopy it next time.
Address written out, with the unit and the cross street. Neighbor's cell. Pediatrician's number. If you are outside the US, cross out Poison Control and write your own line. Three minutes, and it is the part that matters most.
Ages. Allergies with what a reaction looks like and where the EpiPen or inhaler is. Meds with the dose and the time it is due. Bedtime as a clock time. Leave "last given" blank until you are walking out.
The three rules you would actually enforce if you were home. The screen limit. Snacks. Where the first aid kit and the thermometer are. The wifi password, which is the first thing any sitter asks.
Date, where you are, back by, the time of the last dose of anything, and the plan for the evening with real times. Hand it over, point at the address box, and say the allergies out loud once.
Text it to the sitter so there is a copy on their phone, and keep it for next time. Which brings us to the problem with paper.
When paper goes stale
A babysitter information sheet is right on the night you fill it in. By the next Friday, bedtime has moved, soccer got rescheduled, the antibiotic course is over, and the sitter has a photo of the old sheet. For a sitter who comes once, paper is fine. For the nanny, the grandparent who does Tuesday pickups, or the sitter you book every other week, you end up texting the same corrections to the same three people. That is what the Sense plan page replaces.
Sarah Parker adds Lupe, the family's nanny, as a profile in Sense, puts her on the events she is part of, adds Olivia and Ethan under Also show so their days appear too, and taps Share their plan. She texts Lupe one private link. Nothing else is set up on Lupe's side.
What Lupe opens is a web page, no app and no login, with the next eight days: one timeline per day with times, who, a tappable location, and Sarah's note for the day. At the bottom is Good to know, four blocks: Home address, Allergies and safety, House rules, Anything else. The same information as the two pages above, linked from the top of the page.
The difference is that it is always current. When Sarah moves swim to 4:30, the page shows 4:30 the moment Lupe opens it. Nothing is resent, no new photo of a new sheet.
It stays private. Sarah can stop sharing and the link dies at once, make a new link that replaces the old one, or add a PIN as a second check. Any event or reminder can be kept off every shared plan with one switch, and on her own view of the page each item has Hide from Lupe for the one thing that is nobody's business but the family's. Lupe can read, never edit.
Plan sharing is free on every Sense tier. Profiles are set up from the web app under Settings, My Family, Add profile. Read more on sharing your family calendar with your nanny, or the help article on family profiles.
Sense is a full family organizer, not just a plan page: a shared family calendar, school emails turned into events, lists, meal plans, chores and reminders in one place the whole family sees. If you have a nanny, the nanny schedule template is the weekly version of this sheet. If your kids are old enough for jobs, there is a printable chore chart by age too.
Questions parents ask
Both parents' cell numbers, where you are and when you will be back, each child's name, age, allergies, medications and bedtime, your home address written out for a 911 dispatcher, Poison Control, a nearby neighbor and the pediatrician, then house rules, screens, snacks, where the first aid kit and thermometer are, the plan for the evening, and the comforts and quirks that get a kid to sleep. That is the two pages above, in that order.
No. The download buttons link straight to the PDF. There is no form and no sign-up.
For each allergy, write the trigger, what a reaction looks like, and exactly where the EpiPen or inhaler is. For each medication, write the name, the dose, the time it is due, and the time of the last dose you gave, so the sitter cannot double up. Then say it out loud at the door as well. The sheet has a row for each child so none of it gets mixed up.
Walk through the sheet together rather than handing it over. Point at the address box and the emergency block, show them the first aid kit, the exits and how the front door locks, introduce the kids and name the quirks, then be clear about when to call you versus 911. Finish with the sentence every sitter needs to hear: we would rather get a text than have you guess.
The same two pages work for anyone who watches your kids once. For someone who comes every week, paper goes stale by Tuesday, so Sense gives nannies, grandparents and carpools a private web page with the next eight days, your notes, and the same good-to-know blocks, kept current from your calendar. No app or login for them. If you have a nanny, the nanny schedule template covers the weekly rhythm.
Yes. Fill in the PDF, take a photo, and text it. If you use Sense, the plan page is built for exactly that: tap Send to use your phone's share sheet, or Copy link, and text the link yourself. Sense never emails it, and you can stop sharing at any time.
US Letter for the United States and Canada, A4 for the UK, Australia, New Zealand and most of the rest of the world. Both are portrait, two pages, and print fine in black and white.
Sense is free to download. Plan sharing is free on every tier.
