Three summers ago, I needed a summer job. The previous summer I had worked at DSW, and while my love for shoes was great, my patience for retail was not. I decided that since I'm an education major, it was time to start working with kids. I had been babysitting since I was about 13, for neighbors, church families, family friends, and more, but I did not have a regular sitting job and had not seriously worked with children since I decided to go into education. I met a family the next town over through family friends, and started as a summer nanny in June for two kids: a girl, 8, and a boy, 11. My job was to pick them up from camp at 2, take them home, and hang out with them until their parents got home around 6. It turns out, these children were the sweetest, and I fell completely in love with them. They soon turned into my second pair of siblings—siblings that I got to take to the pool and play monopoly with and have all the fun with, without the sibling responsibilities of fighting and wrestling.
Three summers later, and I’m happy to say I’ve still got the same gig. While the older boy no longer needs me, the girl, now 10, and I have gotten closer than ever. Today was my last day with her for the year, and I’ll be honest, it was one of my harder goodbyes. While I loved my babysitting job, and am sad to say goodbye, not all babysitting jobs have been quite so enjoyable, and I’ve had my fair share of interesting experiences with other children, to say the least. If you were or are a babysitter, whether it was for one Friday night two years ago or is your regular day job, I’m sure you can relate to these 23 things That I've learned about being a babysitter:
1. The kids will beat you at Monopoly. And most board games.
10 year old girl: $4062
13 year old boy: $4772
Me: $133
2. “Want to watch a movie?” becomes code for: “I’m done playing tag”
3. You’re happy to have an excuse to watch Disney Channel again and relive your pre-teen days.
4. You’ve learned how to text and talk like a real adult with the parents.
And you've read all your texts over three times to make sure something like this never happens.
5. You’re still slightly uncomfortable to call the parents by their first names, even though the mom has already said, “Please, call me Jennifer!
6. You take “help yourself to any snacks or drinks!” seriously.
7. Your lemonade stand business is killing it.
8. You will be happy you exercise regularly (or sad that you don't) when they make you play Twister with them.
9. It’s summer, and the kids want to go to the pool? Life is hard.
10. You've gotten really good at comforting children even when you don't know why they're crying.
11. Little kids telling you that you’re pretty is even more of a compliment than when said by an adult, because you know they have no filter.
12. But they also may tell you your car is messy.
14. And you thought your taste in music was bad.
15. You can no longer turn to a dad to kill big bugs. This is the big leagues, and it’s all you, now.
16. You are the perfect model for makeovers.
17. Silence is either a very good, or a very bad thing.
18. Parents may come home drunk, which can get awkward.
19. You’re an expert mess cleaner-upper.
20. Dinner time is an experience in and of itself.
21. You’ve read some really weird stories at bedtime.
22. Even through all of the chaos, you love them like their your own little siblings.
23. But, you’re happy to hand them back over to the parents when it’s time.
I've learned a lot about both kids and myself as a babysitter, and now that my summer job is over, I'm going to miss it all.
