Adventures in babysitting.
As long as I can remember I have always enjoyed caring for children. When we would go to Birthday parties or over to my parents’ friend houses I would always be the one to take care of the little ones. Carrying them around, making them smile etc. Some of my moms friends would joke that at just 10 years old I had the mom hip and sway. Of course, I had no idea what they were talking about at the time.
There was a period of time that my sister and I were sent to a daycare facility. The teachers would pull me out of my room so that I could sit and play with the babies and sometimes calm upset babies down.
When I was 10 or 11 a neighbor friends and I set up our own little “Babysitters club” ( Yes, I am from that era.lol). We made up cute little flyers, rode our bikes around the neighborhood and put them in mailboxes. We were so excited to have a summer business. We received our first call from a woman who had four children. I do not remember their ages, I want to say they were probably about 8 and under. The women wanted us to work a couple days a week. Full days. She was going to pay us BIG bucks (Probably like 4 bucks an hour for both of us-lol) ! My friend and I danced around and planned what we were going to do with the kids all summer long.
The day came. We rode our bikes over to the house and the women introduced us to her children. She told us about their dog that was currently locked up in his cage because he could be a bit hyper . At the time, I don’t think my friend and I paid much attention to her instructions about the dog because we were worried about caring for her four children. We took the kids outside to play, fed them a snack-blah blah-blah. When we came inside one of the older children told us their dog had gotten out of the cage. No big deal right? It’s a DOG. We could handle that. Ha. My memory is a bit blurry but I recall that the children, my friend and I ended up locking ourselves in a room in the basement because the dog was phsyco. This was in the day of no cell phones (gasp!) of course so we were stuck. We stayed there for a very long time until the mom got home.
We never returned to that babysitting job.
Over the years I babysat a LOT. Every weekend I would ride my bike to a babysitting job. During the week, I would always have one or two after school jobs. I loved it. I think my favorite babysitting job was for a family with triplets. I started watching them before they could walk. I loved spending time over there. Alexis, Marissa and Marko. They are the children that started the nickname T-T or T for me. They would see me walk in the door and start chanting T-Teeeeeeee , T-Teeeeeeeee. They had a baby sister born several years later, Theodora. I watched them for years. Sometimes, I would baby-sit for a week at a time when their mom and dad went on vacation. Marko was the ring bearer at my wedding. After JT was born I would go over and watch them occasionally. The triplets are in college now! Yikes.
I had some pretty interesting baby-sitting jobs that resulted in never returning. There were some children that I grew much attached to and often think about. Just for the fun of it I am going to list all the children I have watched over the years.
Crazy Dog children. ( I do not recall all their names I do know one was Jeremiah.)
Michael and Nicholas. Nicholas passed away from cancer several years ago. He was such a sweet little boy. He was a baby/Toddler when I watched him. He was the first baby to pee on me when changing a diaper.
Marko, Marissa, Alexis and Theodora. I will never forget when I showed up for a babysitting job and their mother was cleaning up a mess they had made with pancake syrup. They decided to dump it all over the kitchen floor and go skating. Keep in mind their house was always spotless. White kitchen tile floors, white beige carpet!
Weird old man and very young wifes children. Two boys. I don’t remember their names. I was not allowed to go back and watch them because I found some inappropriate stuff hanging around the house.
Lisa- I loved watching this little girl but their house was filthy. Beyond anything you can imagine. It was really bad but the little girl and her parents were very sweet.
Anton and Vicka- I was their nanny for a year. They were adopted from Russia. I remember how quickly they caught on to English and I enjoyed spending time with them. Sweet children.
Kaitlyn, Michael and Brendan- Kaitlyn was my first in-home daycare baby and was (is) such a beautiful girl. I have a special connection with Kaitlyn and her brothers. Kaitlyn and Autumn were born weeks apart and grew up together. When the girls were about 3 years old they moved. A couple years later we moved to the town they were living in and I began watching Kaitlyn and her brother Michael and then Brendan when he was born.
Cassie- I watched Cassie the same time I watched Kaitlyn. Autumn and Cassie shared the same birthday. It was like having triplets with all three babies at once. Cassie was a cuddler and loved to be held. Unfortunately, we have lost contact and do not talk since I stopped watching Cassie after Alec was born. I often think of her though and wonder how she is doing.
Tiffany- I also watched Tiffany when Autumn was a baby. She is the same age. She was so cute. Pudgy, blonde and smiley. I did not watch her for a long period of time but she was a joy as a baby.
Dustin- He was a sweetheart and JT was SO happy to have another boy his age in the house. He was surrounded by infant girls and he needed boy time.
Zachary- After a year off (after having Alec and trying to work out of the house at a daycare facility) I decided to go back to In home daycare. Zachary was my first daycare child. He was great and I loved watching him. He played well with all of my children and fit in perfectly. His family recently moved to our town and in our neighborhood so he occasionally comes over to play.
Jake-I met Jakes mother at the daycare facility I worked at and we became friends. Jake was Alecs age and the two of them played together so nicely. They shared a love for the gameboy. Lol They were also both Mama’s boys. So very sweet.
Amanda, CJ and Jacob- I also met their mother at the daycare facility I worked at. Tina and I hit it off right away and I watched her children part-time. All three of her children had blonde hair and great big blue eyes. We got together often as our kids were close in age.
Michael and Nicholas- Twins that I fell in LOVE with and developed a great friendship with their mom, Andrea. My mom worked with someone who had a friend who needed a sitter. The rest is history. I watched them up until we moved to our new home. It was sad to stop watching them, but we were just to far away to make it work for babysitting. The boys are 7 years old already. I can’t believe it.
Garrett and Colin- When we moved out here, Kaitlyns parents were friends with Garrett and Colins mom. We were introduced to each other when Laura was pregnant with Garrett. When Garrett was 3 months old Laura came over and we hit it off immediately. I started watching Garrett the following week. It was fun to watch a newborn baby again. I had been watching toddlers and preschoolers for a while. During the summer I watched Colin, his older brother who is the same age as Autumn.
Jessica and Eddie- Jessica and Eddie live behind us and I watched them during the summer. Jessica was a bit older and helped me out a lot with Garrett ,Michael and Alec. Eddie is the same age as Autumn but he played well with everyone.
Hayden and Dylan. Their mom is friends with Jessica and Eddies mom and needed a sitter. Christine and I became fast friends and share the same addiction-passion- whatever you want to call it for coffee and watching our boys play baseball. Hayden and Dylan are the sweetest boys and always so polite. Hayden is Alecs age and Dylan is the same age as Autumn. There were 100’s of summer baseball games in my backyard with JT, Eddie, Dylan and Hayden.
Becca- Sweet Becca Boo.- I watched her part time for about a year. Her mom and dad are dear friends of ours. I get to see Becca every week at church and occasionally outside of church. She is such a pretty little girl.
Caleb and Jackson- I only watched Caleb and Jackson a handful of times but like Becca, their parents are great friends of ours and get to see them at church.
Drew and Aidan- About a year and a half ago, I decided that I was going to stop doing In home daycare. My good friend Billy Jo, from our church needed someone to watch her two beautiful boys at her home. This is where I currently work and I absolutely love it.
Katie and Gavin- Along with Katie and Drew I watch Gavin and Katie. They are the same ages as Aidan and Drew and their parents are close friends. Gavin reminds me so much of JT when he was younger and Katie is a lot like Autumn was. A lot of the things they do trigger memories from when my kids were little.
