Speed Babysitting?

When I was twelve, the neighbor across the street rang my doorbell one Saturday afternoon and asked me, "Would you like to babysit for me tonight?"

I gulped. This woman was the mother to six children under the age of seven.  "Sssure," I stammered.

"Oh thanks!" she replied excitedly, "My husband and I really need to get out.  You'll just have to make dinner, feed them, give them baths, and then tuck them in bed by eight. Can you come over at seven?"

"Good Lord," I thought to myself, "I'm going to have to feed half of a basketball team and then make sure they're all clean behind the ears in an hour or less?" 

The going rate for babysitters back then was 50 cents per hour. As I read the mother's "to-do list" for me that, at first glance appeared longer than the first draft of the historical novel War and Peace, I knew I was earning a salary that would never equal the job responsibilities. Later that night, my neighbor's house looked like a scene from the movie Animal House. Children were hanging out the windows, sliding down the banisters, and running through the kitchen with scissors. It was only 7:10 p.m. and I had not only lost complete control, but had also lost one of the children who I later found hiding inside the laundry shoot wearing one of his mother's brassieres around his face like a bandana. That night after I gratefully arrived home to a much more peaceful environment, I made a secret pledge to myself to never, ever in a million years marry anyone who wanted to have more than two children.

 Today, babysitters earn upwards of $10.00 an hour and often receive elaborate benefits packages that include two cartons of Rocky Road ice cream and unlimited access to every channel on cable television. Babysitters also now have the opportunity to market their services via "Speed Babysitting" meetings where teenage girls meet parents so desperate to get out of the house on occasion that they are willing to conduct 600 three-minute meetings with potential babysitters in the span of one evening. Sitter Socials, a speed babysitting service, currently offers speed meeting sessions throughout California and is expanding to several other states in the near future.

As busy mothers, we need all the help we can get in assuring we schedule time once a week or once a month to nurture our marriages and our spirits. So, no matter how you find your babysitter, just know that $10.00 an hour is never too much to pay someone who gives you a chance to remember who you were before you had children.

- Vicky De Coster - www.wackywomanhood
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Comments

[Peggy]

I'm the oldest of five children, so babysitting one or two kids at a time was like a vacation for me. I knew how to get meals on the table, clean up, bathe and bed kids. After they were asleep, I basked in the peace and quiet. My most nerve-wracking experience was sitting for a family's infant when the electricity went out. Fortunately, I was in the dark for only a few seconds.

[Raffi]

I always tell my babysitter not to do the dishes or clean up. I explain that she is there to spend time with the kids and she should be playing with them.

I babysat my butt off from age 11-17 and had spare cash to go out with friends because of it. I also learned a lot about handling kid sized "emergencies" like spilled nail polish on new carpet, or a 6 year old cutting someone's hair.

The only hard experience I had like the one you described was 2 sets of twins and 2 cousins in from out of town, but I bought a friend to babysit with me so at least the ratio was cut in half!

[Kristin Flannery]

I love this post Vicky!! I too babysat all around my neighborhood. My mom was shocked when the neighborhood mom's told her that I was the babysitter everyone wanted because I did the dishes and cleaned up for the families when the kids went to bed (I NEVER did that at my own house). I think I got a dollar an hour. Nowadays I only hire college aged girls (trust me, I would love a high school girl but they are all so busy with sports and jobs at the mall).
Thanks for the laugh!