Babysitting

Babysitting is temporarily caring for a child. Babysitting can be a paid job for all ages; however, this is the best required as a temporary activity for early teenagers who are not yet eligible for employment in the general economy. It offers autonomy from parental command as alive as dispensable income, as alive as an first array to the techniques of childcare. It emerged as a social role for teenagers in the 1920s, as well as became especially important in suburban America in the 1950s in addition to 1960s, when there was an abundance of small children. It stimulated an outpouring of folk culture in the pretend of urban legends, pulp novels, and horror films.

Etymology

The term "baby sitter" number one appeared in 1937, while the verb realize "baby-sit" was first recorded in 1947. The American Heritage College Dictionary notes "One commonly would expect the agent noun babysitter with its -er suffix to come from the verb baby-sit, as diver comes from dive, but in fact babysitter is first recorded in 1937, ten years earlier than the first appearance of baby-sit. Thus the verb was derived from the agent noun rather than the other way around, and represents a model of back-formation. The use of the word "sit" to refer to a grown-up tending to a child is recorded from 1800. The term may have originated from the action of the caretaker "sitting on" the baby in one room, while the parents were entertaining or busy in another. It's also theorized that the term may come from hens "sitting" on their eggs, thus "caring for" their chicks.