The popular question I have been asked these past couple of months was “Are you working this summer?” My answer is “Yes, I babysit for over 30 hours every week.” Now normally, a person’s reaction to my answer contains big eyes and a surprised look. I understand that I am nineteen years old and need to get my life together and decide everything I want to do with my future, but let me tell you, that babysitting actually is preparing me for my future. It’s obviously not something I am going to do for the rest of my life, but it’s a good way to keep busy and learn a heck of a lot of life lessons for the short months I am home before I go back to college.

My first experience with kids started as a camp counselor when I was 17 and my nerves were through the roof. At that point, I had never really talked to little kids except for my baby cousins. I had no idea how much responsibility this actually was until I committed to basically being a mom to 14 nine-year-old girls for two months straight. And when you’re a mom, you’re never off the clock. I wasn’t sure how much I would love taking care of these girls until my one camper wrote me a note that said, “Thank you for all you done for me, you rock. Thank you for making this an amazing summer.” That is what did it for me. These girls came to me for advice, cried on my shoulder, and made me laugh until I cried. I didn’t know how much of an impact I had on these girls, and how much they impacted me in such a short time.

Soon, I had best friends that were only entering fifth grade, and I thought that was so unique. It was so rewarding to know how much these girls looked up to me and know that all of my difficult decisions I had to make were totally worth it.

So after that experience I decided to start babysitting after school, and now I babysit during the summer, since it’s too early to get an internship or real job anywhere. Babysitting can be just as stressful as sitting in an office all day, I’m sure. It’s my job to make sure the kids I am with are happy, breathing, being fed properly, taking a nap on time, calming them down when they’re upset, and watching their every step to make sure they don’t get any injuries. I mean, it’s literally a life in my hands, and that’s something you can’t fool around with.

So for all of you that think babysitting is a not a real job, it definitely is. The parents depend on you to make sure their child is fully entertained and in good hands while they are at work all day, which is a huge responsibility. It can get frustrating when they don’t want to listen to you, follow the rules, eat dinner, or can’t understand what you’re saying because they are too young to know. It’s also hard when they ask you questions that you have no idea how to answer and have to think very fast and smart about what you’re going to say. So while it seems like watching cartoons all day, playing with bubbles, and pretending you’re a little kid again is easy, these are some of the challenges that come along with it, including teaching them life lessons that you don’t see.

Even with these challenges, I enjoy being the reason for smile on a child's face. However, through the ups and the downs of watching a child of any age or the roller-coaster ride of working in an office everyday, it’s safe to say any REAL job is incredibly difficult but rewarding.

Any dollar made is earned through hard work. With any job, including babysitting, there is always someone that watches what you do and looks up to you. You work hard to make others happy, you take on major responsibilities, you go through bumps in the road, you have to learn how to handle difficult situations (sometimes making you look like the bad guy), you have to gain a person’s trust, you spend a lot of time to make sure everything goes right (even if that means staying over time), and you do what you do to feel good about yourself at the end of every week. So just like a landscaper, construction worker, or CEO of a major company, babysitting can be enjoyable, exhausting, and rewarding.