A new sitter should stop by an hour or so early to meet the kids, learn the house rules (and, more important, how to work the remote), and pass your weirdo-detector test. Another inspired move: Send the sitter to an American Red Cross baby-sitter training course. It costs about $25 to $40 for an eight-hour class and lets you go out for a grown-up meal confident that your baby-sitter possesses first-rate diaper-changing, first-aid, and CPR skills. To find your local American Red Cross chapter, go to www.redcross.org.