Tuesday, July 20, 2021 Babysitting Me No Likee

I did a fair amount of babysitting in my day, but it wasn’t my favorite thing. A young family, lived two doors down from us and used to have me babysit now and again. They only had one child,a toddler (Jimmy?). I made the mistake once of watching an episode of “Sixth Sense” after putting Jimmy to bed and when it was over, I was almost frozen with terror. I turned on most of the main floor lights and a radio and tried not to think scary thoughts.

Another time while I was there, I was having a conversation through the window with a couple neighbor boys who were asking me and my friend from next door to go to the state fair with them the following day. Be still my beating heart!! As we were talking, the parents drove up the driveway past us. I was pretty sure they’d never hire me again after discovering me idly chatting with boys while I was supposed to be devoting my every moment to little Jimmy. However, they were surprisingly nonchalant about it, although they did ask me not to repeat the offense.

A family down near the end of the other side of the block once asked me to babysit. I showed up at the appointed time and to my surprise and extreme discomfort they were still eating and in absolutely no hurry to get going. I offered to leave and come back again, but they insisted that I stay. There was a fellow there who was about 8 years older than me and he spent some time talking with me; I found him vaguely creepy and tried not to encourage the conversation. Ugh. I bet it was an hour before they finally left and they stayed out so late that I was asleep when they came home. Never again!

A couple across the street used to have me babysit as well. I was at their house chatting merrily with a friend on the phone after the kids were in bed and I absentmindedly sat down on a little end table which promptly broke under my weight. I am thoroughly ashamed to report that when the parents came home I LIED about what happened and told them I tripped and fell on the table. I tried to refuse payment in light of my transgression, but they insisted. Oh, the guilt!

One time when I was babysitting for a couple that lived farther away, a man came to the door and asked to use the phone since his car had broken down. I should never have let him in – I was uncomfortable about it but not assertive enough to tell him no. He really did just use the phone, but it could have been a very bad situation and I determined that if it happened again, I would say no.

I started getting jobs farther away because of references, but I didn’t like it when the fathers drove me home – it was awkward; they didn’t know what to say to me and the feeling was mutual. I was at a new job one night – there were several children, the oldest being in 7th grade (I was in 9th) and the youngest being 3 weeks old. I knew absolutely nothing about babies and called my mom more than once for advice (the baby won’t stop crying – what should I do?). Meanwhile, the 7th grader was perfectly capable of taking care of the baby and I finally just let him do everything. I’m not sure why they hired me when they had their son to handle things, but I suppose it gave them the illusion that someone more mature was in charge. The son must have told them how the evening went because they never asked me again.

In general, I did not like babysitting except for the money and was glad when I was old enough to get a job and could end that chapter of my life. I used to worry that maybe I was not going to enjoy being a mother because I didn’t naturally love taking care of other people’s children, but when I got married and we started a family, the worries disappeared as soon as I held our first baby in my arms. I loved being a mother and still do, even now that they are all grown. And I love being a grandmother!!

This has been Tuesday True Stories with Lynniebeemuseoday. I’d love to heard about some of your babysitting experiences. Am I the only one who didn’t love it?

I’ll probably delete this, but maybe not. I need to sit down and think about it, hopefully not breaking any furniture in the process.