Jaidyn Case Spurs Sitter Campaign
The Age
Saturday May 12, 2007
THE death of toddler Jaidyn Leskie has been the spur for a new campaign to encourage parents to think twice about who they choose as carers for their children.
The Office of the Child Safety Commissioner yesterday launched a campaign based on resource kits to help parents better think through how they organise occasional care. The package includes a one-page tip sheet for parents, Proper Care When You're Not There, and What the Babysitter Needs to Know, a fridge magnet and notepad with reminders of information that should be shared with a babysitter.The package also lists warning signs. These include any person who asks your child to keep a secret; your child's bad or unusual reaction to a person (withdrawn, angry, frightened); physical contact with your child that makes you or your child uncomfortable; or someone wanting to spend time alone with your child at times when they are not babysitting for you. A longer advice sheet available on the commission's website has ways of teaching older children how to keep themselves safe (for example, agreeing upon a "code word" they will use on the phone to you if they are in trouble) and advice on how to assess when a child is mature enough to be left home alone.The campaign is the result of recommendations made in Jaidyn's case by Coroner Graeme Johnstone, who noted that there was a lot of material to help parents choose formal child care but little guidance about casual babysitters. Fourteen-month-old Jaidyn was found to have died in June 1997 after he had been left with his mother's boyfriend, although the exact cause of death has never been determined. In findings in 2006, Mr Johnstone said Jaidyn's mother had become nervous of her boyfriend's behaviour towards her son after he left the toddler in the backyard with his three dogs, allowed him to cry without being comforted and smacked him. Mr Johnstone urged that a guide to risk factors be created to help parents choose safe babysitters. "Reliance is obviously placed on the 'commonsense' of the average parent to make this assessment for himself/herself," he wrote. "Unfortunately, one person's 'commonsense' may well differ from another's." The kits were launched by the Minister for Children, Lisa Neville, and Community Services Minister Gavin Jennings. The information sheets will be given out to parents by maternal and child health centres, community health centres, neighbourhood houses and child protection agencies.Mr Geary said it was important to acknowledge "the difficult or pressured circumstances that some parents, sole or partnered, find themselves in from time to time". He said there were clear themes in children's descriptions of what made them feel safe with a babysitter: they like a familiar person who listens to them and who they feel they can trust, fun activities to occupy them - and good food. The campaign comes as an international search is under way for missing three-year-old Briton Madeleine McCann. She disappeared from a bedroom where she was sleeping in a resort hotel in Portugal while her parents dined at a nearby restaurant. She was taken between her parents' half-hourly checks.
© 2007 The Age