Babysitting

Babysitting is an interesting thing…I can’t believe how drastically becoming a parent has changed my perspective on childcare. 

Don’t get me wrong, I’m not one of those psycho-parents who wants to micromanage everything a person does while watching her children.  In fact, I’m probably on the more laid-back side when it comes to parenting…even to a fault, which leads to feeling lots of judgment from other parents who aren’t as lenient…but that’s another blog post for another day.

I have my fair share of babysitting experience…I babysat for years and was a nanny for a few summers during college.  I did my first overnight babysitting of toddlers by myself when I was 10.  I look back now and think those parents must have been CRAZY to let a 10 year old spend the night alone with their kids…

I was Red Cross certified, had my “regulars,” and made quite a bit of money watching other people’s children.  As a babysitter, I was always very concerned with what the kids would say about me to their parents—was I nice?  Did they have fun?  I never wanted to tell a parent how much to pay me, I said they could decide how much they wanted to pay, and I was usually happy with what I was paid.  I also always did all of the dishes and cleaned up the house before the parents came home, so it looked nice and everything was in order.  I thought that was common sense?

That leads me to being a parent.  Now I’m more concerned with how well behaved my kids are…were they respectful?  Were they wild and crazy?  Now I always want the babysitter to tell me how much they charge, to make sure I don’t overpay, but mostly to make sure I’m not cheap and they don’t walk out thinking “I got totally ripped off after watching those two little terrors!  I’m never babysitting for them again!” 

Of course, I have been surprised by some of my babysitters. 

**I should qualify this blog post by stating that Grandma is always the best babysitter.  Who could be better than someone who loves your children as much as you do, knows them almost as well as you do, and most importantly, is FREE!  Thank you for always watching the boys, Grandma Ellen!!!  Also, my nieces make GREAT babysitters, and the boys adore them…too bad they live over an hour away…

We’ve started having more non-Grandma babysitters recently, for a variety of reasons including:  Isaac is finally old enough where I feel comfortable leaving him with a teenager, Grandma is busier than ever, and Hans and I are finally totally committed to dating on a regular basis again and investing in our relationship, even if it drives us both crazy to spend a ton of money on babysitting.  I guess that’s the cheapskate in us both…(but let’s be honest, it is EXPENSIVE to hire a babysitter!  They literally make as much money per hour watching kids as I do at my job!  That’s not right!)

Anyway, here are some of our babysitting lowlights…

1)  The teenage babysitter who used to watch Reily and a couple other kids during our small group.  We usually had the kids at our house and the adults at another house nearby…and she was awful!  She would text all the time, put on a movie, and let the kids run wild.  She never cleaned up and left their toys and food out…one time they got in the cat food and water, spilled it all over the bathroom floor, and she left it for me to clean up when I got home!  The last straw for me was when I saw that she had logged into Facebook on our computer!  Our computer is upstairs in a room off of our master bedroom…and she did not know where it is, nor should she have had time to find it while watching four kids.  Besides, she’s there less than 2 hours—Facebook, really?  I think this upset me even more because all 3 families paid her, and she got paid WAAAY too much.

2)  The babysitter who watched Isaac and Reily and said they were good.  I noticed Isaac’s eye was a little red when I got home, but didn’t think much of it.  It got worse, and out of the blue a few hours later, Reily said “Isaac fall down stairs, all way!”  What?  I texted the babysitter to see what happened…she said Isaac took a little tumble but was fine.  Hmm…so something happened somewhere between “took a little tumble” and “fell down stairs.”  Is it just me or should parents be told of these things when they get home?? 

3)  The babysitter who has a crush on our neighbor boy, and takes the kids in the front yard and down to his house because “Reily wanted to go see him.”  Somehow the alphabet letters on our refrigerator also spelled his name…impressive for a 1 and 2 year old. 

Ahh…the joys of having other people watch your kids.  I know my boys are a handful, so most of the time I’ll take what I can get and will be grateful as long as they aren’t permanently injured when I return!