There are many challenges to babysitting younger siblings. In some cases, there are kids that act like complete monsters. But others are more or less pretty well-behaved kids. If there is more than one child you are babysitting, there could be some problems. Babysitting gets challenging over awhile.

When I first started babysitting I was about fourteen. I started babysitting my little sisters but did it for free. At first they were little angels but after a while watching three children is a lot of responsibility for one teenager. I was babysitting a four-year-old named Jayla, an eight-year-old named Olivia and a thirteen year old named Keshiana. With the Olivia and Keshiana fighting all the time my attention was on them instead of Jayla. After things settled down I was keeping Olivia and Keshiana busy. After about an hour or so I realized that Jayla was missing. I looked outside and saw her riding her bike. I was relieved that she was okay, but never knew they let her ride her bike up and down the street alone. I was so nervous seeing her ride her bike near a busy road. I tried to get her in the house. That was not as easy as it sounded. She was used to riding her bike when she liked. I couldn’t just go back in the house and leave her there. I threatened to put her in time out but she was never use to that so that didn’t work. She was not trying to go back in the house. So I called Keshiana over to help. She and I went on both sides to catch her and put her in the house. Jayla had run away. She ran close to the road and my heart nearly dropped out my body. With a busy street like that I was afraid she was going to get hit by a car. After she was away from the road Keshiana and myself went and I caught her. She was not happy. She was kicking, screaming, and crying. When we got in the house I put her in her room for a time out. She cried even louder.

After what seemed to be an hour (10 minutes) I let her out her room. She said she was going to be a good girl and not fight with me anymore. Little did I know she was trying to run out of the house again. I stopped her and asked her where she was going. She said she was going to the neighbors. I told her that sense she was bad that she was not given permission to go over there. Her little face let me give in and let I let her over for forty-five minutes. The neighbor came over at the time she was suppose to be home and brought her in. The neighbor noted that she heard the four year old crying. I was not expecting her to hear Jayla, so I was not that happy but what could I do. After the neighbor left Jayla was a precious angle. I had her take a nap and all she asked for was a cup of milk which I gave her to settle her down.

As you can see, babysitting is not what anyone is expecting. With my experience with Jayla, Olivia, and Keshiana was different than others I learned many things that day. I have grown from this experience, and now I watch the kids more efficiently.