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Hello, I'm a teenager who isn't old enough to get a job yet, and is unmotivated to do anything constructive with my summer. I also never paid attention in class to such trite matters as grammar, spelling, and punctuation. I've chosen to grace you all with my particularly perky precocious presence. Or, I would choose to do that, but I skipped class the day the teacher discussed alliterations too. In short, I have no life, and will either become a hardened criminal before I'm 21, or graduate [latin word that gets edited cause it can be used as a vulgarity] laude from law school.
The first time I babysat, I was 15 and the kids were 7 and 3. It was out in the country in Ireland and the parents were gone out to dinner. I thought the 7 year old was gone to bed, but all of a sudden he comes into the living room saying there was a fire. It was August and many farmers burn thier fields in August so I thought he was talking about the farmers. I asked him to show me where and he led me to his parents bedroom and under the bed was on fire. I quickly got his sister out and called 999.
The next morning he admitted that he was playing with matches under the bed. Luckily he only damaged his parents room.
I babysat for them for 3 years after that, ended up being a nanny in three different countries.
When i was 14 i think it was my mom volunteered me to babysit a friend of hers. Which was fine actually because i had worked the last 2 springs/summers for a nursery *plant nursery* but the lady shut down so i wanted to make some money. These were the worst kids i had ever dealt with in my entire life omg. Now i didn't expect it to be a cake walk because it was a 2 year old and a 5 year old but it was really bad. He talked back, never did what you asked, hit his sister, hit me, bit me, made a holy friggin mess. Then to top it off after dealing with that one for one day my mom's friend came home and got mad that i didn't pitch in for the house work o.O. Which to be honest i might have done had i not spent the entire day chasing Lucifer. That job lasted about 3 days, before i quit the job, and went to babysit someone else's children.
When I was 19, I used to stay overnight to babysit my neighbor's 13-year-old son (his mom worked night shift). I'd get him off to school in the morning, and then leave for school myself. Imagine a 13-year-old boy's galloping hormones with a 19-year-old girl is in the house? The house had two entrances to the attic - one in the kitchen, and one in the closet of the room where I was sleeping. Guess where that little Peeping Tom hid to watch me get ready for bed? He'd go up to the attic via the kitchen stairs, then come down the stairs into the bedroom closet. I heard the tread on the stairs and it scared the CRAP out of me...I opened the closet door and found him there, smirking.
Okay well this is nothing compared to some of these. This last Monday I was babysitting for all of 20 minutes when I had to put the oldest (5 years old) in time out because he wasn't doing what I asked. I told him I would be back in 5 min. to talk to him about it. Then I went to the next room to help his sisters get into their swimsuits so we could play in the pool. So I get them dressed and go back to the 5 y.o.'s room and start talking to him about how he needs to listen the first time I tell him to do something, blah blah blah we have the same basic discussion almost every time I sit. then I say, "okay, if you're ready you can get into your swim suit and come outside when you're ready to play."
then I go back into the hallway to have the middle child (4) say that the youngest (almost 2) locked herself in the bedroom. Crap. so i get my mom on the phone (who used to be a locksmith) and say, "How do you unlock a bedroom door? it's one with the hole on the outside." and she tells me to look for a tool "that looks sort of like a screwdriver" and then the oldest comes out of his room and helpfully points at the top of his sisters door and, Lo, there the tool sits, lodged into the wood frame! i guess it happens quite a bit now that the two girls are sharing a room! so my mom tells me how to maneuver it into the lock and get it opened. Finally i do and i open the door to see the little girl sitting on the floor, pulling books off the shelf! we all went out to the pool, me being very relieved that nothing happened, and have a fun afternoon outside. the rest of the day went fantastic until bedtime!
short but it made my tenuous relationship with my mil go down hill faster---when my first and only child was 2 months old i needed emergency dental care---called up my mother-in law-to see if she could watch the baby for 1 hour as dentist was a half mile from her home and it was her first grandchild--she said sure---dropped off baby,diaper bag and car seat carrier---came back about hour and 15 minutes later---house was wide open-----no one at home--car gone--baby on sofa awake and crying at edge---no note--no phone call to dentist---i was furious--took baby and left--never received phone apology and never left child with grandma again---no back up from hubby/her son---so now no more mother in law
When I was a teenager, I agreed to a babysitting job. When I got to the house, the woman almost bowled me over on her way out the door - it was just "Bye!", no instructions, no phone number in case I needed to get in touch with her - she was just gone.
I entered the house and oh my what a mess. I was no neat freak myself (you should have seen my own bedroom), but the mess in this particular house was of such epic proportions that it shocked me. Dirty, moldy dishes and glasses everywhere. Clothes strewn about the house. Piles of (clean? dirty?) laundry on the living room floor and even on the steps leading up to the bedrooms. And in the middle of this mess, two little kids who wanted their dinner..... which I prepared for them in a very scary kitchen. Needless to say, it was a long evening even though the kids were really great.
Afterwards, I went home and took a long, hot shower....
Last edited by springfieldva; 07-13-2012 at 05:59 AM..
We had a sitter watch our kids and she was horrible. She worked with me at the local Y and had sat for us several times. She became our regular babysitter, and while I didn't find her to be a 'great' babysitter' I also wasn't very worried about her since she kept the kids safe Until....(this all happened within a week)
We got home one day and my daughter who was 2 or so at the time said that she and my son were running in the street. I asked the sitter about it and she said "well I didn't want to say no". I told her THAT IS HER JOB! I had her booked for two more times and sadly kept those.
The next times she sat was my son and his friend (age 4). They were playing in the attic (they were not allowed up there). I came home and walked upstairs and thought I would vomit. My son had an accident and tried to clean it up. The entire bathroom looked like an explosion of poop. There were wire hangers (about 100) all over his bedroom, and they were playing around broken glass. Again the sitter said "well they said not to bother them, so I just stayed downstairs".
Last time (this is where I KICK myself for not listening to my gutt, I felt one more time since she was booked) we were out to dinner. I get a call my daughter had fallen. She had a huge cut on her cheek and I had to take her to the hospital for stitches.
We had a sitter watch our kids and she was horrible. She worked with me at the local Y and had sat for us several times. She became our regular babysitter, and while I didn't find her to be a 'great' babysitter' I also wasn't very worried about her since she kept the kids safe Until....(this all happened within a week)
We got home one day and my daughter who was 2 or so at the time said that she and my son were running in the street. I asked the sitter about it and she said "well I didn't want to say no". I told her THAT IS HER JOB! I had her booked for two more times and sadly kept those.
The next times she sat was my son and his friend (age 4). They were playing in the attic (they were not allowed up there). I came home and walked upstairs and thought I would vomit. My son had an accident and tried to clean it up. The entire bathroom looked like an explosion of poop. There were wire hangers (about 100) all over his bedroom, and they were playing around broken glass. Again the sitter said "well they said not to bother them, so I just stayed downstairs".
Last time (this is where I KICK myself for not listening to my gutt, I felt one more time since she was booked) we were out to dinner. I get a call my daughter had fallen. She had a huge cut on her cheek and I had to take her to the hospital for stitches.
How awful! After she let your kids run around the street, why on earth did you ever let her back into your house?
When I was about 13 or so, the neighbors who lived in the apartment below us were in a band, had a baby and had a concert that night that they weren't going to be home from until like 2am.
They fed the kids before they left and put down the I think 3 year old, who they locked in his bedroom.
So it was just me and the baby, who would cry and I would pick up until he stopped crying, luckily my mom was upstairs if I needed anything but they stayed out so late I ended up falling asleep and I had zero experience with babies, my mom had to come down and help me change the diaper. That wasn't too bad, nothing horrible happened but I think the only reason they asked is because they knew my mom would be upstairs.
Another time I found an AD on the school bulletin board for a woman needing an after school sitter. She needed someone to come over RIGHT after school to watch her son who came home on the bus. I was 15 or about to turn 16 when this happened. Very very simple job, make sure he did his homework, put in the premade dinner in the over and heat at certain temp for a certain time, feed the kid dinner and she'd be home shortly after that. What she failed to mention was her kid was a nightmare from hell. This kid was about 8 or so and everyday after school, he'd run outside to play with his friends, specifically playing paintball in the woods behind their house. I of course told him no, he was going to do homework. He'd lock me out of the house, point the paintball gun at me and flip the safety sending me diving behind whatever was closest and then run off into the woods.
I quickly quit.
I nannied once too, you all remember that.
The little girl was mostly a nightmare, she had her sweet moments but for the most part she hit, kicked, shoved her brother and guarded her toys like the worlds worst spoiled brat, she'd hit if anyone came near them, she never wanted to listen.
The little boy was just adorable, to young to be anything but sweet, always loved attention, always loved to play.
The parents were the worst. Cleaning was involved in deal but they had no cleaning supplies, no paper towels, no cleaners, just organic dish soap used to clean everything, no mop, just a broom. It was awful.
They took me on two trips, one to Kansas City, last minute told me I wasn't getting my own room, told me I was sharing a bed with the little girl (who still has accidents at night) then changed it to me sleeping on the pull out sofa, with no privacy and the room service wouldn't give me a comforter or enough blankets to keep warm at night (it was October). We all went out to dinner and the kids ate first, got cranky and they sent me home with the kids, as soon as the family got back that night I went to the lobby and all that was left was doritos and gatorade, which was my dinner. The SECOND night they left me there with the kids, ordered dinner from the restaurant downstairs and for me and a 3 year old and a 1 year old, they ordered 1 hamburger, side of fries and a side salad. Each kid ate half a hamburger, ALL of the fries, spilled the water in the side salad as well as played in it and you guessed it, doritos and gatorade, with my own money, nothing else was open or close by to walk to since I had no car with me. Then once we got back to Denver, I was left to carry MY luggage, both car seats and some small stuff, they booked it to the car leaving me behind to carry stuff that combined was heavier than myself.
Then they had me meet them up in vail around christmas to watch the kids, two days was the max I was suppose to stay.
She didn't give me my check until the 22nd, told me I couldn't cash it till the next day, I had work all the next day in prep for the holiday at BBB, told me I needed to buy dog food and the money for that was included in my check. Well, I went to the bank, had to wait for it to pend and couldn't buy anything until the check cleared the next day on the 24th, I worked the 24th, got off work at 7 and by that time Petsmart was closed, so I just bought some dog food from walmart, made sure it had all the stuff in it the dog needed for hips and stuff. I left the day after christmas, drove up to vail, and again was sharing a room with these people, which meant I had to go to bed when they girl went to bed so I didn't wake her up, which was at like 7 something. I never had any time for myself and I hardly got to talk to TG while I was gone and this was months after we first met, then I go back home, clean up etc etc, I am supposed to get the dog back from the neighbors but the neighbor doesn't answer, I stopped by a million times, called the neighbor a million times.
They come back early, New Years eve, they yell at me because I haven't gotten the dog, I had the call log to prove I blew up this dudes phone, then I get yelled at because the neighbor had to feed the dog (although the husband brought back the bag of dog food I bought), then told me that buying the wrong brand of dog food was "tantamount" to stealing from them and stealing wasn't acceptable, admitting that I did in fact take over dog food with the dog when I dropped him off but then accused me of stealing because it wasn't the right kind, which was all the wifes fault for me not being able to deposit my check until so late, knowing I had to work christmas eve.
They told me I needed to pack up as much as possible and get out and that I couldn't stay the night. So I packed up everything but furniture and my bed into my month old at the time car, and drove over to my mom's and then went straight over to TG's and celebrated the new year and was so happy that I could finally sleep in the next day for once.
The next kids I take care of will be my own.
Last edited by txtqueen; 07-13-2012 at 03:25 PM..
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My goodness. You win.
