But will the baby sit

YOU'VE HAD a dreadful babysitting session. The children were so difficult that you nearly walked out.

"One of the children broke a bed playing trampolines, the youngest spilt a glass of blackcurrant juice on the white carpet while playing trains in the lounge. Now the parents have, returned and you have to explain how awkward the children have been.

No, this not the start of another Nightmare for the Babysitter" story, but a suggestion for a role play session in a new course on babysitting that could help both babysitters and parents.

Just what are the ground rules for babysitting? Considering the enormous responsibility involved in leaving your children in someone else's care, it's surprising how casually many arrangements are made.

However, the training course, for people aged 14 and over, launched recently by the Irish Red Cross has the potential to give both babysitters and parents a new sense of confidence. Based on an English course, it provides education in basic home safety, first aid and child care through practical demonstrations and role play. The course takes up two hours a week for 10 weeks easy enough to fit into even a busy teenager's schedule.

Indeed, the accompanying Handbook for babysitters and parents would be useful for anybody taking care of young children it deals with everything from elementary child psychology to what to do in the case of an accident. And it highlights briefly, but with great clarity, all the things that babysitters and parents need to think about how to handle telephone calls or calls to the door what to do if there's an accident how to cope if the kids act up what to do if you suspect child abuse or receive unwelcome advances your self what are your rights and responsibilities.

Graham Murray (15) is one of 12 boys and two girls doing the 10 week course as part of the Leaving Cert Applied programme in Deansrath Community College in Clondalkin Dublin. He found the sessions on d'what to do in an emergency useful. It gives you more confidence about" what to do if a child stops breathing, or how to treat cuts and so on. And it makes it easier to control kids, knowing what to do, how to settle them down." Graham has been babysitting his little sister and a baby cousin, aged five and two, since he was 13 or 14.

Mary Power, year head of the Leaving Cert Applied class at Deansrath, was amazed at how interested both boys and girls were in doing the course perhaps because it looks at an important part of their, "outside school lives.

Sarah McCrossan babysits three times a week, earning £15 to £20. She'd like to implement something of what she's learned about babysitters' rights like agreeing in advance on what her rate of pay is. "I should be able to ask for more money, but I just can't."

ROSE FITZPATRICK, who teaches the Red Cross course, says she has been surprised at how much teenagers know about taking care of small children many can handle changing nappies, making bottles and the like with ease. But both girls and boys are embarrassed when it comes to asking questions, whether it's where the children are sleeping, when the parents will be back or how much money they'll be paid.

It may seem obvious that a parent will go through basic information whether a child needs medication where someone can be reached in an emergency before leaving a babysitter, but it doesn't always happen. Fitzpatrick tells babysitters that a lot has to happen on a first visit,, and at that point it's acceptable to ask questions "it shows that you're concerned, responsible".

The course also get babysitters toe focus on children's needs. "A boy might say this brat does my head in and if I ask how he manages that he'll say, `I just roar',"

"The hardest thing for a lot of babysitters is putting the children to bed I say put yourself in the place of the child he might be misbehaving because he's frightened or lonely."

One important point the course and the handbook emphasise is the most obvious the children not TV, not homework, not listening to music must always come first. It also discusses the question of friends. Many parents are against babysitters bringing a friend to the house, but if done by prior arrangement it can be useful, Fitzpatrick says.

Teenagers doing the course get assessments and an exam, capped by a certificate if they complete the course successfully which should help getting further jobs. But even if a teenager never babysits for money" it would be useful, because in some ways this is a mini-parenting course. Teenagers also learn from each other, telling each other about their experiences while doing the course.

If you're a parent debating whether to let your eldest mind his or her brothers and sisters, the handbook reminds you of all the things your teenager needs to know.