There are countless summer jobs high school and college kids endure—lifeguarding, interning, being a hostess, waitressing, part time jobs at the mall, babysitting, and the list goes on. They are all rewarding and challenging in their own respects. Here is some reasons why babysitting is the best of them all.

• It is fun! The whole summer is spent "hanging out," essentially. Sure, it is a "job," but in the grand scheme of things, you are being paid to play with kids all day.
• You can do anything. Want to watch a movie? So do they. Want to go swimming? It's summer, so clearly, they do too. Want to get ice cream? Who doesn't want ice cream?
• It is good practice. Eventually I'd like to be a mom, and what better practice than watching children all day? And learning you cannot always be their friend.
• You get to be goofy. You don't have to always be entertaining the tikes, but it is fun to joke around and be weird with them.
• You get to act like a kid again. You can play pretend. The floor can become lava and the pool can become the ocean.
• No taxes. A simple perk of babysitting is that it is straight cash. Holla!
• You get to watch Disney, Nick, and PG-rated movies. Disney movies are the best—enough said.
• You get to feel smart. The kids will ask you questions, a lot of questions. Knowing things another does not always gives you a little ego boost.
• Chicken nuggets and corndogs. Basically, kids' main food groups. You get to treat yourself to some nugs and juice boxes all summer long.
• You can multitask. It is possible to do online classes while babysitting, or write your weekly Odyssey article ;). Not many jobs have the down time during the day to complete personal tasks such as these.
• You get to have some best friends that are younger than you are. A lot younger than you.

The summers go by pretty quickly when you're spending your day playing kickball outside, but towards the end, you are really looking forward to school and seeing all your friends again. But, at the same time, you don't want it to end because that means you won't be hanging with your favorite humans under the age of 12 every day. Some days make you want to leave by noon, because well, everyone has bad days. Through the challenges faced, at the end of it all you are always sad to hug goodbye, and you're extremely thankful that you got the chance to say that your "job" was playing every day for the past three months.