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As a preteen devotee of the original Baby-Sitter’s Club series, I strove to be as an inspired babysitter as the girls in those books. In return, my charges adored me: I recall one young boy saying, “Can’t we just watch a video? We usually just watch videos when sitters come over.”

What never occurred to me was that babysitters are a relatively recent phenomenon. Ruth Graham writes about the cultural history of the American babysitter in a smart, funny piece for Slate, explaining how the Depression created the babysitter, and dissecting the ways babysitters have been portrayed in the media, from the perfect (the aforementioned Baby-Sitters Club) to the bumbling (Jonah Hill in the new movie “The Sitter”) to the deranged (Marilyn Monroe in the 1952 thriller “Don’t Bother to Knock”).This piece is a must-read for anyone who ever was a babysitter, hires one now, or just enjoys smart analysis of American family life.

Read the original article on Slate, complete with an excellent slide show. 

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