If I learned anything from babysitting these past four years in college, it's the exact opposite of how kids should be raised. Sure, every once in a while you babysit for a family where the kids actually have manners, don't spend the entire night mesmerized by their electronics (even though this is chronic homework time for us), and go to sleep on time. However, nine times out of 10, they have absolute no interest in listening to you the second their mother walks out the door, just as you have absolute no chance of getting them to put down the iPad or finish their dinner before they run for dessert. My mom was always home when I was younger so I never had a babysitter. However, I've quickly realized that, to kids, babysitters are basically equivalent to a substitute teacher -- a free pass to do absolutely nothing you are supposed to do, and still get away with it.
As a college student, we have a very basic love/hate relationship with babysitting. It offers the flexible schedule that we require and financially gets us through the week, yet if Little Johnny asks us to play one more round of hide and seek we're literally going to drive into a tree on the way home so we don't have to come back tomorrow. As much as we loath this tedious, messy, position, we can probably say we've learned some valuable life lessons from watching these little minions four times a week:
Growing up in the "technology generation," we've learned to value and successfully utilize electronics to our professional advantage, but we know better than to let it consume our lives and daily agenda.
Nowadays, an iPad is the new Barbie or train set. It makes me cry a little inside that a Barbie dream house is no longer a little girl's dream, and has been replaced with the digital video game of "Frozen." Yes, we text and use social media way too much, but it's no comparison to the reactions we get when aggressively pulling a kid's iPad from his hands because his 15 minutes are up.
Killing them with kindness (or candy) is always the best answer.
If we yell, they will only rebel and threaten to tell their mom that they hate us. In addition to the embarrassment of fighting with a 10 year old, we will never actually win by punishing. Maybe putting them in time-out will get them to stop pinching their sister, but they will come out of time-out even more unhappy as when you were yelling at them before. This ultimately makes our job ten times more difficult. It's much easier to put on a fake smile even though we want to bash our head in the wall and bribe them with a free pick from the candy drawer until they stop.
It's never too early to instill manners, and never too late to use them.
Kids are learning from their parents even when their parents least expect it or wish they weren't. Your kids personality will come directly from your own as well as their actions and attitudes. If your kid says to us, "they're just the stupid cleaning ladies..." we're going to assume you once said that in front of them. A three-year-old doesn't come up with that on his own just like your kids don't acquire manners without being taught. Set a good example 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Courtesy goes a long way and it's never too early or too late to use it.
Time is one of the most valuable assets of life.
Kids don't want to spend more than 20 hours of the week being watched by a babysitter. We actually think they would rather be sitting in the car with their mom or dad being car-pulled around while their siblings are taken to after-school activities. After the second day in a row, they're begging for their mom to tuck them in and telling us to go away, no matter how much they love us every other hour. Family time is the most important part of childhood no matter how it's spent and it shouldn't be limited or given away.
We can never be too prepared or have too much practice for our future.
At the end of the day, babysitting is great practice for our future if we plan to have our own little minions one day. We experience just about every situation possible and learn how to fix it, either by calling our mom and freaking out or actually figuring it out on our own through a series of guess-and-check solutions. Either way, we leave that day being that much more responsible and informed. We now know why tin foil can't go in the microwave and what to do when the baby won't stop crying. We even know how to deal with the kids fighting in our backseat while we're driving. Us babysitters will be the best moms around in about five to 10 years.
