Trove Tuesday - Babysitting

As I was undertaking one of my frequent activities this morning I pulled out my mobile phone to see what Trove could tell me about that activity, Babysitting but I wasn't able to read the results easily because of the small screen size. Now I am back at home in front of a regular screen I am revisiting the search.

The first few instances I found were in the 1880s but these were OCR errors where the two words Baby and Sitting were read as one. It wasn't until the 1940s that I found some mentions of Babysitting as we know the term today. Following are a few snippets.

1949 '"Annie" Acts As Baby-sitter', The Sydney Morning Herald (NSW : 1842 - 1954), 19 January, p. 7. , viewed 13 Jun 2017, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article18086855


This next article appeared in many newspapers across Australia.

1949 'WANTS BABY-SITTING RECOGNISED', Advocate (Burnie, Tas. : 1890 - 1954), 5 October, p. 18. , viewed 13 Jun 2017, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article91765668

1952 'Babysitting on a bus', The Mail (Adelaide, SA : 1912 - 1954), 18 October, p. 25. , viewed 13 Jun 2017, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article57565176

1960 'Dangers of baby-sitting', The Australian Women's Weekly (1933 - 1982), 27 April, p. 2. (Teenagers' Weekly), viewed 13 Jun 2017, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article51399061

1952 ''Baby-Sitting Wrong,' Says Doctor', Daily Examiner (Grafton, NSW : 1915 - 1954), 5 September, p. 1. , viewed 13 Jun 2017, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article194585131

If you have trouble reading this next essay here is its URL : http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article122248412

1990 'Crazy nights of whine and song', The Canberra Times (ACT : 1926 - 1995), 20 May, p. 17. , viewed 13 Jun 2017, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article122248412