New ad
So, I just realized this weekend that part of my huge stress over babysitters lately is that people we’ve used in the past just haven’t been available lately. Some needed more regular opportunities, some aren’t available all day when we need that, one is starting a new job…Our list has gotten too short! So, having had luck with Craigslist in the past, I’m going to give it another try!
Hi! We are fun family with 2 kids, 1 and 3. I work on an as-needed basis at a nearby hospital. We have found wonderful caregivers- on Craigslist, but need more options as those people have become less available.
My schedule varies greatly from week to week, so we need someone flexible— interested in caring for the children 1 to 2 days a week from 8 to 6 or 8 to 1.
Our preference would be to try someone who would be interested in caring for the children in their own home.
Ideally, this awesome someone who would also be willing to pick up my daughter from preschool (in Shaw neighborhood) at 11:30.
Rates negotiable, references required.
Responses so far ..
hi, My name is Meg GXXX and I've got tons of experience babysitting kids.
Babysitting continued…
An hour or so after i leave the kids with the new babysitter, I call to check in.
She reports that Avery read books in her bed and then when she later went up to check on her, Avery was “just dead!”. (not the greatest choice of words for paranoid mom here, but I knew what she meant.) When I ask about Maya, she says she tried to put her in her crib but Maya “wouldn’t dare!” “wouldn’t dare?” “wouldn’t dare go in” So, she apparently held Maya on the couch till she fell asleep. Maya, used to crying it out, was surely confused by this special treatment!
Maya, my easy baby, usually cries in her crib for about 15 seconds tops, so I reiterate that it’s fine to let her cry in her crib, but feeling weirdly akward about telling someone how to deal with my own child, I say if she wants to hold her, that’s fine too.
The babysitter later calls me because our cat is throwing himself on the basement door wanting out. Sadly, this is the usual state of affairs at our house, (since the flea epidemic) but I do suggest she can give the cat some food if she’d like. I later find some of our Indian food leftovers and a cut up sausage on the plate in the basement! Unusual menu for a cat (guess she couldn’t find the cat food), but again, special attention he is not usually granted.
So, everyone more than survived! We’ll be trying this babysitter again for a couple hours this week.
Getting a hold of fear
Yesterday, I spent half the day worrying that, given my babysitting options, I’d end up having to settle for some stranger to me, who would surely molest them and/or cause blunt head trauma. Surely. I even attempted to find someone to work for me so I could just stay home.
Now, I have a lovely girl lined up who seems nice and non-sociopathic as can be. Yes, I let my anxieties fly way out of hand yesterday. Still, trusting a babysitter is scary sometimes. I know I can’t be the only one on this?
Finding a Babysitter/Nightmares on Shenandoah Street
A big fat negative of my current one-day-here, two-nights-there-unpredictable-work-schedule is that I spend wayyyyyyy too much time trying to find a babysitter. At this moment, it’s about to put me over the edge.
Daddy’s Home!
Maya went way beyond her usual two steps yesterday. When dad arrived home from work, she scrambled 6 or 7 steps together in her rush to get to him. What is it about babies and men? Or is it just my girls?!
Random act of Nerd-ness?
Thank you, bank patron, for leaving the unopened sample size of Nerds on top of the drive through banking speaker box. It was a sweet treat after a hectic morning.
Did you just not like Nerds? Did you think there might be someone more needy of Nerds than you? Why the bank drive through?
I must admit that the thought crossed my mind that if you are a psychotic Nerds poisoner, that the bank probably has cameras that could help lead to your arrest.
Please reject me!
It was a suspenseful day. Would I have to stay up all night to work in ER then return in the morning to (attempt to) judge an alleged stalker? I was in a “pool” for the first time, teeming with 42 people who appeared to want to clamber out as badly as I did. Unfortunately, we swam in place for hours!
The DA asked us every conceivable question one could ask. Had we ever been stalked? abused? Known anyone who was stalked? Stalked anyone? Do we distrust police? Had we ever been charged with a crime? What was it? Could we trust verbal testimony? Did we understand innocent before proven guilty? Boxers or briefs?
Many were eager to show off how biased they were. Even I did slip in that domestic violence made me “very angry”, but reluctantly agreed that this didn’t mean I couldn’t judge this case “on its’ own merits”.
At 4:30, the chosen were called, one by one. Thank God Above, #28 was not one of them.
We were all surprised the jury chosen was all white, though half the pool was black, and the defendant was black. What was the thinking on the defendant’s attorney’s part?
I came away impressed that we go to so much trouble to involve citizens in the court process, but wondering if this could be streamlined. Apparently, in Kansas City, the pools are chosen before you even get to court, which would have saved me my first day of waiting. In Europe, they have professional jurors for run-of-the-mill cases.
I slept all day yesterday, never more grateful for rejection.
Hardship
Eavesdropping on other potential jurors pleading their case in front of the judge, it became apparent that my “hardship” was not going to sail, not the 80$ I would have to pay for babysitting today, not the fact that I am working all night tomorrow. Too bad, so sad.
“You should have planned ahead” he barked at a woman who came up right before me, who had no one to watch her kids. When it was finally my turn, I had rehearsed and edited my spiel for 3 hours but had already given up. I started bawling before I was able to get my whole story out, and left before I could find myself prostrate on the floor. The judge obviously felt bad. (Even in my sorry state, I felt worse for him. What did he do to deserve his job from hell, I wonder? He was probably an eggplant in a former life)
It must be my off kilter sleep schedule that set me up for these emotional spills of late, unusual for me. Drama! You would think i was being sentenced to a gulag. Still, my girls! I’ve been tired or gone too much lately.
Per usual, my cell phone has made a disapearance, and I had no change, so, still bawling, I called my mom (they have a toll free number) and had her call Steven to make sure Avery would be picked up from preschool. I then sat and read my book club book for the rest of the day.
Steven said yesterday that he read somewhere that if you smile, it causes a physical reaction that causes in turn causes acual happiness. On the way home, I smiled the whole way, so I’d be happy for my girls, but it hasn’t kicked in yet. Maybe because I have to go back tomorrow!
