Adventures in Babysitting

We used a babysitter for the first time the weekend before last. I wasn't nervous about who it was, but more so things like, is she available? What do I pay her? I don't want to rip her off or insult her because I want her to come back, but I don't want to start something that isn't necessary either. What things do I need to go over with her? Do I need to give her a tour of our gigantic house or will she find the bathroom on her own? What time do we have to be home? How late will I be able to stay up/out? Do I even need to worry about what time we have to be home if I can't even stay awake that long? I mean seriously....830 is bedtime around our household anymore, so come 10pm and it feels like 2am!


The girl that watched the infant room in the afternoons is who we called. We called her last minute, on Thursday I think, because my mom had originally committed to babysitting, but then they called for a range of 2-12" of snow, so understandably, she backed out. The weather was another question that I had to freak out about. Does that mean we shouldn't go? Luckily, Becca was available and I was shocked she didn't already have plans. I probably sounded ancient when I told her we would be home around midnight or 1230, thinking that would keep her out too late, but she said they usually START going out around that time. Seems so long ago when I was doing that.


So, I did my research about prices and decided just to ask her what she charges. It ends up it was nothing to freak out about because what I had in mind is about what she receives anyway, plus a little more.....to keep her wanting to come back so we can keep our social calendar up. Ha! Our friends Darren and Amy brought their boys over for her to watch also, so we did the introductions, I gave her the grand tour and off we went. AJ and I talked about how much we missed her while we were out, but we didn't call to check on her at all because we knew she was in good hands. The concert was great and the weather was "get around-able", but not the best of conditions. Maybe a good 4" of slush is what we ended up with when all was said and done. But we made it home and she gave us the report. She said Peyton went down fine and was very tired. The boys played video games all night and then crashed in our bed. And then she told us the funniest thing. Bless his heart, it's not really funny, I just think it is because I'm immature. Connor was having trouble "poo-ing" so he asked her to rub his back. Poor guy....but I couldn't stop laughing at it because all I was thinking about was what I would do if I was babysitting kids that I'd never met and I was asked to do this? I'd hesitate because I'm immature, but of course I'd do it. I hope I don't sound like a bad mom. I shouldn't laugh. It was only funny because I'd had the most beers I'd had since before I was pregnant and Becca was so serious when she told the story. She said he would ask her to rub higher and then push harder. And then she said his legs fell asleep because he sat there so long. She is a true childcare provider because she didn't giggle or anything when telling us what happened and she continued on, like a professional, just doing their job. Everything ended up ok with the bathroom situation. Maybe I get this from my dad who always manages to talk about "poo" at the most inappropriate times? He's almost 60 and still finds the word hilirious.


So, off Becca went and I felt the need to watch her leave the drive-way like she was one of my kids taking the car for the first time. I guess it's a good thing I did watch because she ended up sliding down the driveway, taking out our mailbox and getting stuck half way in the yard and half way in the street. I made AJ run out and check on her and he tried to push her out, but nothing. Then he came up with the brilliant idea to use the Jeep to back up to her car, with a piece of ply-wood in between the vehicles, and try to push her out. Did he seriously think it was going to work? All that happened was the Jeep about went over her car like it was a monster truck crushing vehicles. So I'm yelling at him to stop, while still trying to keep quiet and not wake Peyton and the neighbors. Becca ended up having to call her mom to bring their big truck and the tow rope and they pulled her out around 130am. Her mom is the daycare owner, so I was sure that she was going to charge us more that next week for getting her out of bed at 130 in the morning.

Despite all of the little obstacles, it turned out to be a nice outing and we plan to do it again.....every once in a while.