How would I apply the "Functionalist Theory" of Sociology to Babysitting?

[Misses Mia Wallace]

http://web.grinnell.edu/courses/soc/s00/soc111-01/IntroTheories/Functionalism.html

[dowcet]

Why do families hire babysitters? Why do they go out without their kids in the first place? Why don't they leave their kids home alone? Why can't they find anyone to take care of their kids for free? What determines who families hire, and how much they pay them? For example, why are most babysitters young women, as opposed to older males? And how does the babysitter benefit from doing this job as opposed to another?

Think of as many answers as you can come up with to these kinds of questions. Then figure out how to develop those answers relate to functionalist concepts, like "values and norms", "structural alternatives", "manifest" versus "latent" functions etc.

To take a really obvious example, there is a legal and cultural norm against leaving kids at home alone because, it might not be safe for them. So, safety is one manifest function of babysitting.

A structural alternative you could discuss are daycare centers. What are the advantages of babysitting over those? Why doesn't every family use one? Why doesn't every potential babysitter go and work at one?