Forever a Babysitter

I actually prefer the term "nanny." Does that make me sound less like a sixteen-year-old girl who puts the kids to bed right away while she watches TV and calls up boys to come over as soon as the parents leave?

Cause I don't do that. Not really.

Today was my second day of my second job. I've started nannying for the kids next door, like I did two summers ago. Except this time I'm also watching their three cousins occasionally. Let me tell you, watching five kids between the ages of nine and one is a breeze compared to eight one-year-olds at daycare. A BREEZE, I TELL YOU.

It was kind of fun, actually. Besides that time I had to pry the five-year-old's fingers off the ride-on car so he could let the baby have a turn and find a way to make him stop screaming so the neighborhood watch program wouldn't come citizen's arrest me or something. And besides that time I brought them to swimming lessons and kept encountering chatty super-moms asking me, "So, which ones are yours?" as they burped babies and screened calls on their Blackberries and cheered for their kids as they blew bubbles in the water.

I'm really selling this job, huh?



It's actually not as bad as I'm making it out to be. I rather enjoyed loading the baby in the stroller and setting my phone in the cute little cupholder and watching the other kids ride on ahead on their scooters as we walked down the cul-de-sac to the bus stop. Yeah, I felt really mom-ish and it kind of freaked me out, but it was still fun.

Anything beats changing poopy diaper after poopy diaper until all eight kids are clean, and breaking the news to parents that their precious little angel was bitten by someone else's precious little angel and it left marks that'll probably scar. But hey, I'm Super-Babysitter (or Super-Nanny, but that's already a show and I really can't compare myself with Jo Frost)--I can handle anything.



Upstairs in M.'s room, I came across one of her Nintendo DS games this morning. I couldn't help but laugh out loud and read the back of it. It was called "imagine: Babysitters." Literally, that's what it was called. The back said things like, "Feed, bathe, and change the cutest babies to earn your dream job in a nursery!" When I was a little girl, I'd be all over that. And now I'm a real babysitter. A nanny, even. Go figure.



It's gonna be a fun summer. Kids, kids, and more kids. I can't wait till I don't have to watch someone else's kids. Ever again.

Note: The first picture is a plaque D. has hanging in her dining room. I think it's very wise, don't you?

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