The
family I sat the most regularly for as a babysitter had two daughters
and a toddler boy who definitely took a full baby-bottle of milk to
his crib at bedtime. Instead of the Moose Club, like the other family
I sat for, the parents of these three children were usually at
Republican Club functions in our town. There are three main incidents
I can remember about babysitting for this family.
One
early evening the dad picked me up in his car and on the way to the
house explained that he had been eating watermelon that day with the
kids. They saw him put salt on his piece of watermelon, so they
wanted to do it too. Later in the afternoon, one of the girls got
sick. She had been vomiting. Dad thought perhaps it was the salt on
the watermelon that made her ill. They put her on the bed in their
bedroom, which was on the main floor, and since she had not thrown up
in a couple of hours – Mom and Dad thought she would be okay enough
for them to go out. The parents not only left a phone number that
night, but promised to call – and they did.
Well,
the sick child was surprisingly all right while I was there. She did
not get off of her parents' bed, but neither were there any incidents
of vomiting. At bedtime, I put the other two kids to bed in the room
upstairs. After a while, I could hear the daughter upstairs
complaining that she did not feel well. I told her that she was okay,
she just thought she was sick because her sister was sick. Then she
threw up – all over her bed.
I
changed the bedsheets and her clothes. Took everything to the
basement – but I was afraid to use the washer – I'm still that
way with other peoples' washing machines. So I left everything in a
pile on top of the washer, and I called the parents. They were upset
and apologetic – I told them I thought the daughter was fine at
that point. So the parents said they would not come home immediately,
but soon.
After
that the little boy got sick. The pile on the washer was even higher
when Mom and Dad arrived. When I got to my own bed that night, I
thought I was going to be sick – I told myself that I was okay, I
just thought I was sick because I saw kids upchucking that night. And
I was right.
One
night when I arrived at the house, the Mom was very proud to tell me
that her son no longer had his bottle – and I was not to give him
one at bedtime! But when it was time to put the kids to bed, the
little one fussed. I asked the girls what was wrong. And they said
that their brother needed his gun! He had traded his baby bottle for
a gun. It was with grave ambivalence that I handed this little boy
his toy gun to caress in his crib that night.
The last story about this family has to do with babysitting for a
whole day – from 8 in the morning on a Saturday until 6 that night
– 10 hours – that's $5! When my kids were little, babysitters
cost $5 an hour – and in my day I had to put in an entire day to
earn that much! Well, the Mrs told me she did not have the money but
would pay me later.
They
never called me again.
They
still owe me five dollars.
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