What should you leave a babysitter?

Leave your babysitter, or your child's grandparent, what's different today, then pickup and handback, the schedule, food, parent-confirmed health notes, house rules, contacts, and the decisions that stay with a parent. A good handoff answers the questions they'll have when you're in a meeting and can't pick up the phone. It's short, it leads with what's different today, and it ends with them telling you they've read it.

The template below covers all of it. Copy it, fill in what applies, and delete the rest. It's written for babysitters and grandparents covering a stretch of time. Shared custody raises different questions, and this template doesn't try to answer them.

The babysitter and grandparent handoff template

No account or sign-up needed. Paste it into a note, a text message or a printed page.

CAREGIVER HANDOFF BRIEF
For: ____
From: ____
Care window: ____ (date, start time) to ____ (end time)
Children in your care today: ____

WHAT'S DIFFERENT TODAY
- ____

PICKUP
Where and when: ____
Who the school or activity expects: ____
Bring: ____
If pickup runs late: ____

RETURN / HANDBACK
Where and when: ____
Who takes over: ____

SCHEDULE
- ____ (time): ____

FOOD
Meals and snacks: ____
Not allowed: ____

HEALTH NOTES (parent-confirmed only)
Allergies and written care plans: ____
Where the written plan is kept: ____
Care instructions and any medication plan: attach the original parent-confirmed instructions, not an AI summary.
Emergency plan reviewed together: ____
Local emergency number: ____
Address of care location: ____

HOUSE RULES FOR TODAY
Screens: ____
Bedtime: ____
Other: ____

CONTACTS
Parent: ____ (best way to reach: ____)
Backup adult: ____
School or activity office: ____

CHECK WITH A PARENT FIRST
- ____

SOURCE AND LAST CONFIRMED
Pickup details confirmed with ____ on ____
Health notes confirmed by ____ on ____
Everything else last checked on ____

CONFIRM BACK (caregiver replies before the care window)
I've read this. My questions: ____
Answered by ____ on ____

You can reuse the standing sections, like contacts and house rules, from one handoff to the next. Check them each time. A new date at the bottom should mean someone actually looked again, not just that the date moved.

Which parts of a handoff need the most care?

Five of them: today's changes, pickup and handback, health details in a parent's words, when each part was last checked, and what stays with you. Fill in whatever else in the template applies today. Most of it is obvious once it's in front of you.

Put today's changes first. Regular caregivers already know the routine, and that familiarity is exactly why a change slips past them. A grandmother who has done Thursday pickup twenty times will go to the usual door unless the brief tells her otherwise. If she reads only one section, it should be this one.

Write pickup and handback in full. Pickup is where small gaps cause the most trouble. Give the place down to the door, the time, and whether the school or activity needs the caregiver on an approved pickup list ahead of time. Add car seats or boosters, what to bring, and what to do if pickup runs late. The other end matters as much: when the care window ends and who takes over, so nobody is wondering whose turn it is at six o'clock.

Health details come from a parent, word for word. Copy allergy and medication information from the written source, such as a plan from your child's doctor, rather than from memory or an AI summary, and say where the original is kept. If an assistant helps you tidy the brief, compare the health section against the original line by line. Don't ask any tool to decide on medications or amounts. Go through the actual care and emergency plans together before the handoff; this template points to them and doesn't replace them.

Date what you've checked. Household information goes stale quietly. A gate code changes, a coach gets a new number, an allergy plan is updated. A caregiver who sees "health notes confirmed in March" knows to ask, and you know which part to recheck first next time.

Say what stays with you. Clear limits protect the caregiver as much as the children. Name the decisions that stay with a parent today: driving other children, letting visitors in, agreeing to a schedule change the school suggests, signing forms. Leave out what the afternoon doesn't need, like passwords, financial details, or information about a child who isn't in their care.

Filled-in example: a grandparent's early dismissal pickup

The names, places and details are invented. It's the early dismissal from our article on how to organize school emails with AI: school lets out at 12:30 on Wednesday, November 25, and a grandparent, Lou, is picking up Theo (second grade) and June (fifth grade).

CAREGIVER HANDOFF BRIEF (fictional example)
For: Lou
From: Priya
Care window: Wed Nov 25, 12:15 pm to 6:00 pm
Children in your care today: Theo and June

WHAT'S DIFFERENT TODAY
- Early dismissal: school lets out at 12:30, not the usual time.
- June's piano lesson is canceled this week.

PICKUP
Where and when: Maple Street Elementary, front office door, 12:30
Who the school expects: Lou is on the approved pickup list
Bring: the school pickup card; transport arrangements reviewed with Priya
If pickup runs late: call the front office, then Priya

RETURN / HANDBACK
Where and when: our house, 6:00 pm
Who takes over: Sam

SCHEDULE
- 1:00: lunch at home
- 3:00 to 4:00: screen time is fine
- 5:30: Sam texts when leaving work

FOOD
Meals and snacks: sandwiches and fruit in the fridge
Preferences: June prefers the fruit packed separately

HEALTH NOTES (parent-confirmed only)
Original care and emergency instructions: reviewed with Priya before pickup; printed copy in the care folder
Local emergency number: 911 (U.S. example)
Care location address: filled in on Lou’s private copy

HOUSE RULES FOR TODAY
Screens: 3:00 to 4:00 only
Bedtime: n/a
Other: homework first

CONTACTS
Parent: Priya — phone number filled in on Lou’s private copy
Backup adult: Sam — phone number filled in on Lou’s private copy
School office: phone number filled in on Lou’s private copy

CHECK WITH A PARENT FIRST
- Driving the neighbors' kids (their parent has a plan)
- Signing anything from school; leave it on the counter

SOURCE AND LAST CONFIRMED
Pickup details confirmed with the front office on Nov 23
Health notes confirmed by Priya on Nov 22
Everything else last checked on Nov 24

CONFIRM BACK
Lou's questions: Which door is the front office? Does Theo need a jacket?
Answered by Priya on Nov 24: the door with the blue awning; yes, it's on the hook.

A few things to notice. The changes come first, including one that removes a job: no piano run this week. Phone numbers and the address go on Lou's actual copy, where Lou can reach them away from home, rather than in a version that might get forwarded. The health section points to instructions Priya and Lou went through together, instead of squeezing medical details into a text. And the "check with a parent first" lines answer two awkward questions before anyone has to ask them at the school door.

How do you confirm the caregiver has the latest version?

Ask them to reply, and correct the master copy whenever anything changes. A handoff isn't finished when you send it. Ask the caregiver to read it and reply with any questions, ideally the day before. Which door, which bag, which snack: all much easier to settle by text on Tuesday evening than at pickup on Wednesday. In the example, Lou's two questions were quick to answer by text the night before. At 12:30, with two children waiting, they wouldn't have been.

If something changes after you've sent it, correct the master copy first, not just the message thread. Update the confirmation date, then tell anyone holding the older version. In a group chat, reply directly to the old brief with the correction so the two sit together. A sent message or printed page can't be taken back, which is one more reason to keep things like door codes out of a brief you reuse.

What does a new babysitter need on the first visit?

More than today's logistics, which is what the template is built for. A first visit needs a little more: a walk through the house, how the doors and alarm work, where the first-aid supplies and the written care plans live, and time for the sitter to meet the children while you're still there.

The American Academy of Pediatrics publishes a babysitting checklist for parents and sitters that's worth going through together on that first visit. It covers what to leave, including contacts, your address, routines, allergies and any special needs, and when you'll be back, along with appropriate car seats and your own instructions. Use it alongside this template: theirs for getting a new person ready, this one for what's different on a particular afternoon.

Should you send it by text, calendar or app?

A text or a printed page is fine for most handoffs. If you'd rather use shared tools, check what the other person can actually see.

• A shared calendar. In Google Calendar you can share a calendar with specific people and choose what they can do. A separate "care" calendar, holding only the pickups and times a grandparent needs, keeps the rest of your schedule out of view. Share it with the person, not publicly. Our article comparing a family calendar with an AI assistant has more on setting one up.
• A shared AI project. When a ChatGPT project is shared, members see the project's shared chats and files (OpenAI Help Center). Put a brief inside a broader family planning project and everything else in it comes along. Keep the brief separate.
• Andi. Andi's Care Share is built for this handoff. A parent picks the caregiver, the children and the care window, reviews the care package, and approves what's shared. The caregiver gets a focused view rather than the whole family account, and live access ends when the share expires or is revoked. The support page explains what a caregiver can see, and our privacy notice covers how past care activity is kept.

Where a tool lets you remove someone's access, doing so stops what they can see from then on. It can't take back what they already read, screenshotted or copied, and a text or printed page can't be recalled at all. Share what today's care needs and no more.

How do you make the next handoff easier?

Fill in the standing sections together once, so either adult can send the next one. Handoffs are work, and in many households the same adult writes every one. If that's true in yours, it's worth a look at the whole picture. Our article on how to use AI to reduce the mental load of parenting includes a short audit of who notices, writes, checks and follows through on a job like this one.

Shared standing sections are the simplest fix. Sit down together once, fill in contacts, house rules and the health notes, and date them. After that, today's brief is mostly the "what's different" lines, and either adult can send it. That's the idea behind what we call Family Intelligence: the right details reach the right person for the right stretch of time, and no single parent has to carry them alone.