Baby Sitting | Teen Ink

Baby Sitting

May 13, 2009
By Anonymous

Dealing with children can be difficult especially if the children are knotty. This was the case when I baby-sat the three children in the M. family. Tessa was twelve the oldest then came Drew the middle child he was four and then Brian the youngest was three.

They were my neighbors and I was only thirteen so when they offered me a summer job I jumped to the offer. The only thing was I went into the job thinking that they were angels what I came to find out they were the complete opposite. It was like I was swindled in with there little faces begging me to baby-sit them. Just so they would have the chance to torture me with all there antics. These kids were almost unbearable I couldn’t overcome them. They would just come back at me with different tricks.

I had all the tasks that normal baby-sitter had I fed the kids made sure that they stayed out of trouble and took them to the park and pool. The first time I saw their true colors was when I tried to feed them. I made them hamburgers and French fries but when they saw that they flipped out and started to scream. I finally got them calmed down and when I asked them what was wrong they informed my that they would only eat macaroni and cheese and hot dogs. I could all ready tell that this would be the longest summer of my life.

Now most kids would love to go to the pool. Well this was true for these kids to except that they could not they were kicked out of the pool for two years. Now this was a punishment caused by multiple things. Tessa would push little Brian into the deep side knowing he could not swim. They would run around the pool acting like hooligans and they would cuss at the lifeguards. So this was an acceptable punishment for them.

Now we only had one naptime the whole time I worked what was the cause for this you ask? Well I just got the youngest one to lie down and go to sleep when I walk out to the living room where Tessa should be she is gone. So I go looking around the house when I here the drier going I thought that was weird because know one should be doing laundry. So I go and see what is going on and there is Tessa leaning against the direr and you can here Drew laughing he was in the DRIER! I could not believe it. But this did not just happen once this happened at least every other week. It got so bad I had to lock the laundry room door. Now in my opinion that is just sad!

So needless to say my first job was not all that it was cracked out to be. I thought it was suppose to be fun but these children were the opposite of fun they were awful. They had no conscious at all. But if you knew their parents you would no wren they got it from.

Mr. and Mrs. M. worked together at our local newspaper office. They use to pay me a dollar per child per hour. So I was making less than a bum on the street if you could imagine that. But with these kids I deserved at least ten per hour per kid.

The time that I almost quit is when we went into the grocery store I told them to stay right beside me we only had to get milk. The next thing I know they are all over the place as soon as I get to the check out line a police officer is pulling up and walks in and comes straight to me. He asks me if those kids were with me all I could think was o now what. I told him yes and he let me know that they were stealing. So they are now not aloud to go into that grocery store any more. They were just out of control they had been kicked out of all the restaurants and almost all the public places in the town. Even the Post Office I mean come on who gets kicked out of a Post Office. After that incident the baby-sitter before me quit. See this was not the first time that these children had been kicked out of the Post Office. Come to find out the pranks they pulled on me were exactly what they did to the other baby-sitters. So they were not just first time convicts they were pros.

I use to take them on walks and every now and then their parents would call. So I would stop and talk to them letting know every thing is ok. Well one time we were walking by this older ladies house when there parents called so we stopped and I talked to them I turn my back on Drew for a second and the next thing I know he is knocking on this ladies door pretending to be homeless he was asking for money! I could not believe him that was just ridiculous!

I had no clue how to handle these children they were just way beyond me. I even mentioned therapy to the parents a lot of good that did. The whole three months I baby-sat these kids not once did I ever go without having excitement in my life and I was always on the go.

I went into this job thinking “ Great I can baby-sit it means money and Its not that hard” well I was completely wrong. It was the hardest thing I have ever done it eventually got to much for me . I finally had to say im done and just quit I established this after all the “they called the cops for no reason” excuses or the accidental drier incidents and “I didn’t mean to push him in the pool” excuses. I got to know by the expression on there faces which thing happened whether it was the direr accident again or the “he fell in on his own” excuse. Either way I had to quit I left the job to some unlucky person that got offered it next.

That was my first job it took me almost six months to start baby-sitting again. I guess I was afraid I would have to jump in a pool or tell a cop it will never happen again. Now that I baby-sit children that do not go looking for trouble I love to watch them.



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This article has 2 comments.


hanafan36 said...
on May. 18 2010 at 8:13 am
you may have a good angle, however I lost interest somewhere in the middle. I suggest you edit your sentences for spelling, grammar, and punctuation before sending this in. Also, see if you can scale it down a bit. The best essays are short and to the point, highlighted with imagery.

AAA123 said...
on Sep. 7 2009 at 5:52 am
I would focus on what you learned from this experience and not say anything negative about the kids or the parents. The university might think that you'll quit when things get tough. They also want to know you have a sense of humor. Be careful about spelling - it's 'naughty' not knotty.