Bab-by Sitting
A couple hours after I got home from work today (babysitting at a gym, if anyone forgets since I haven't updated my livejournal in months) I received a desperate phone call of one of the mothers that comes into the gym pretty regularly, asking if I could come babysit RIGHT NOW because her babysitter had to cancel. So I should've been working on some art homework, but I can't say no to someone who is desperate like that, and also...I need money.
When I got there I realized that I have never actually babysat anyone before. Like not full-out babysat. I was a "nanny" for a while in highschool, which meant I just played with a 10-month old baby while her mother was working upstairs. I didn't actually DO anything. I worked at summer camp a couple years ago, but it was a daycamp with activities and stuff. And at work now I just watch kids for like an hour at a time while their parents work out.
I'd never had to like watch, cook dinner, bathe, read stories, etc, with a kid, and frankly as soon as the sentence, "We don't have a microwave so you can heat up her dinner on the stove" left the mother's lips, I was instantly terrified. Even worse was this: "Sometimes the stove doesn't light, so you can use a match." I love how since I'm all a 22-year-old adult, she assumed I knew how to use stoves and stuff (I DON'T! AND MATCHES SCARE ME!) But I just smiled and nodded. (Luckily, when the time came, I said, "Please god let the stove light, oh god please" and it actually DID work. I'm sorry people who are always trying to convert me?)
So I like...watched a kid. On my own. For 5 hours. And didn't destroy or burn anything. I'm kind of shocked. I even cleaned the kitchen too. I think this is a rite of passage or something. It needed to be documented.
When I got there I realized that I have never actually babysat anyone before. Like not full-out babysat. I was a "nanny" for a while in highschool, which meant I just played with a 10-month old baby while her mother was working upstairs. I didn't actually DO anything. I worked at summer camp a couple years ago, but it was a daycamp with activities and stuff. And at work now I just watch kids for like an hour at a time while their parents work out.
I'd never had to like watch, cook dinner, bathe, read stories, etc, with a kid, and frankly as soon as the sentence, "We don't have a microwave so you can heat up her dinner on the stove" left the mother's lips, I was instantly terrified. Even worse was this: "Sometimes the stove doesn't light, so you can use a match." I love how since I'm all a 22-year-old adult, she assumed I knew how to use stoves and stuff (I DON'T! AND MATCHES SCARE ME!) But I just smiled and nodded. (Luckily, when the time came, I said, "Please god let the stove light, oh god please" and it actually DID work. I'm sorry people who are always trying to convert me?)
So I like...watched a kid. On my own. For 5 hours. And didn't destroy or burn anything. I'm kind of shocked. I even cleaned the kitchen too. I think this is a rite of passage or something. It needed to be documented.