Mom and Dad are going out for dinner, eager to have two hours to themselves. Does the baby sitter have the cell numbers? Check. The BlackBerry address? Check. The restaurant number? Check.

So, they’re ready to go, right?

Not so fast, says Meri-K Appy, president of the Home Safety Council. There are other questions to ask – ones that probably matter much more in an emergency.

Will the baby sitter be cooking? Bathing the children? Neither are great ideas, Appy says. And what do you know about the baby sitter anyway?

“The question to ask yourself isn’t, ‘Is this person responsible under normal circumstances?’ The question is, ‘If something horrible happened in an instant, can I trust this person to handle it when life and death can hang in the balance?’ ” Appy says.

True, the likelihood of such a catastrophe is slim, but for parents who buy five-point safety car seats and don’t let their kids eat hot dogs until they’re 3, taking precautions is nothing new.