So my next door neighbor’s usual babysitter can’t make it. Of course, I, being the closest available teenager, am called and obligated by my parental units to watch the little kids for a couple of hours. It starts out ok, the 7 and 5 y.o. girls are annoying but tolerable. Then, all hell brakes loose. One of their friends comes over. They scream, yell, jump on me, play with things they aren’t supposed to, almost get into a fist fight, etc, etc, etc. After yelling at them, they finally zone out because of the tv. Thank God. Of course, as soon as there is a commercial, everything starts again. Finally, one of the three friends over has to go home for dinner. She, 8, asks the 5 year old, Briana, whom I am babysitting to go over there with her. So Briana runs out side. I go to the door and see the 8 y.o. putting Briana on her shoulders. Just as I’m going out side, Bri falls and breaks her fucking arm.
What really sucks–I have to do this again tomorrow.
You should be far more forceful. For example, tommorow, show up in jack boots, and carry at riding crop. Smack the little buggers for looking at you, and when they cry smack them for crying. The twerps are not scared of you, so change that! Tell them that the parents have left, and that the twerps will never see them alive again. If they start to cry, smack them with the riding crop. Insist that they call you “Your Royal Highness”. Give them shovels and have them dig a moat around the building, and if they complain, smack them! Welcome the twerps friends over, then lock them in the dungeon. Tell the friends that this is what you do to spies. If they cry, smack them! Then let them know that if they keep this up, you will take care of said friends parents “Just like little Briana’s, MUAHAHHAHAHAHHAHAHAA!”
Make sure you get the evil laugh part down.
The girl breaks her arm and it’s still all about you?
Poor Cogitoergosum, has to sit again tomorrow.
With that little empathy, I hope you don’t ever have kids.
I agree with Mu Mu. I’m not surprised you are a teenager, you are extremely self-centerned. Big fucking boo-hoo. And I suppose you were the perfect child? Goodness and light personified?
I’m GLAD you aren’t having kids. If you were a breeder, the world come become a very sad place.
You should have called this: "Why you should never EVER hire a teenage sitter."
Holy fuck, if they were acting up, tell the friends to go home - this isnt brain surgery here! It isnt the kids who fucked up, it YOU! you useless excuse for a sitter.
A five year old needs SUPERVISION look it up, then try it.
You let the child break her ‘fucking arm’ and they let you sit for them again?
Give me the address, and I will call CPS, these kids are being NEGLECTED!!!
Come on, Kel, you’re being very unfair here. She didn’t personally break the child’s arm. It was an accident. Yes, the 8 year old should not have had the child on her shoulders in the first place. And Cogit should have dealt with that immediately because keeping the children in her care safe should be her first priority. However, she had FIVE unruly kids on her hands - far too many to supervise properly. And for that, the responsibility falls squarely on the shoulders of the PARENTS who allowed that to happen. Both the parents of the children she was being paid to watch, and even more so, the NEIGHBORS who allowed their 3 kids to visit friends while a babysitter was there.
To attack the babysitter is unfair. My children are ultimately MY responsibility. That means first and foremost not leaving my children in the care of someone whom I don’t trust 100% – even if my social life suffers. Secondly, it means laying down the law to the kids about how to behave at all times (no jumping on the furniture EVER), but most especially when a babysitter is in our home. And finally, it means outlining clear cut rules for the babysitter when she visits my home (no cooking, no friends, no AOL, 9pm bedtime).
So, yes, Cogit bears some of the blame. But most of it belongs to the adults who allowed this to happen. They should be grateful a more tragic accident didn’t occur.
You’ll probably have kids. It’s the odds for most people.
Anyone who babysits gets to see them nice a lot of the time.
And you’ll forget the bad stuff before it’s your turn.
Then you’ll remember too late, but be a lot more protective than strict when it’s your own.
A lot of my friends talked like you and then had kids, and none ever said they regreted it overall.
Ican sympathize. I had to watch my sister, who is ten years younger than me, every Saturday while her parents worked (well, one of the parents was mutually shared.) Never a word to Kid Sis that she was supposed to mind her sister. Mom and stepdad would tell me what Sis was and was not allowed to do. Then she’d go to do something she wasn’t supposed to, I’d tell her no, she’d call mom at work, crying, this kid had crocodile tears down to an exact science, and say I was being mean to her. Of course, if anything bad had happened to her while she snuck off and did something I told her not to, it would have been my fault. (I was also required to clean the house top to bottom each week, while I was sitting, which made it impossible to watch her every second.)
Cogit was supervising, as best he could. Five year olds can move surprisingly quickly, and he moved to follow and stop the child from leaving the house without the parents’ permission. It’s obvious from his post that the wonderful parents had not let the children to know that they were to mind the sitter.
COGNITO, ask yourself who really was in charge, because from your explanation, it pretty obviously wasn’t you.
Your job isn’t to be these kids’ best friend but, at the most bare-bones level, to make sure they don’t injure themselves. And you failed. I don’t blame you totally for the fact that the kid broke her arm but it seems clear that as a babysitter, you need work. Let’s review:
You let all hell break loose by allowing inappropriate behavior. If “all hell is breaking loose,” restore order! Punish the little brats! And no, I do not mean smack them; whatever you may think about smacking your own future kids, it is never okay to smack someone else’s. But a little time in their rooms would probably calm them right down.
Screaming, yelling, playing with stuff they’re not supposed to, fighting = friend goes home. Period.
“Everything starts again” = friends go home. Inappropriate behavior = TV shut off, and friends go home. You were not hired to watch these kids AND their friends, and if you cannot handle that many kids (which, sorry, it seems clear you can’t), send the other kids home.
At this point, you have so little control over the kids that the five-year-old does not know: (a) she has to ask you before she can go anywhere; (b) she has to ask you before she can run outside. She is also so wound-up that a piggy-back ride seems like a great idea. Result: a broken arm.
If you do sit for these kids again, remember that YOU ARE IN CHARGE. They will only run roughshod over you if you let them. If you truly are unable or unwilling to take care of them appropriately, then don’t sit for them again, because the next injured child might be one who races out of the house and is hit by a car. I know from LONG experience that babysitting can suck, but if you’ve agreed to do it then you have an obligation to do it right.
The parents PAID this kid to watch TWO children, to keep them safe. The fact that the sitter allowed 3 more disruptive kids into the house is NOT the parents fault. (unless of course the instructions from the parents were: “Let 3 more kids come over.” - but I doubt they were)
Yeah, I agree here - its lucky this moron didnt let the kid break her fucking BACK!
The only thing I see here that the parents did wrong was hire an incompetant to babysit.
Well, if the kids acted that way for a babysitter, I doubt they act any different for the parents. I’m not saying Cogito has no responsibility…she? does. The kids should not have been allowed friends over, and should have been sent to their rooms.
HOWEVER. The parents should have also set out rules and controlled these kids enough so they they knew this kind of behavior was NOT acceptable. The fact that they’re going out the next night says to me that they’re not all that attentive.
I totally disagree here. I’ve never had a babysitter because my dad was a “stay at home” parent until we (myself and three siblings) were old enough to basically take care of ourselves. (I think I, being the youngest, was 14 when he went and got a job.) But I’ve taken care of many children and I must say that this certainly isn’t the case for a lot of kids. Just about every single kid that has ever been under my care was good as gold until the second the family car pulled out of the driveway. And I babysat some monsters too. No broken arms though. Or legs. Or necks. No serious injuries at all.
Anyway, Cogitoergosum, let me pretty much repeat what others have said. You should’ve sent the friends home. Hell, you shouldn’t have let them come over in the first place. If the parents actually ask you to sit for them again, say no.
I agree that the kids are good while the parents are there, but my point was that I bet they act in a similar fashion for just the parents. I only babysat kids I knew, and some were hellions. And they were the SAME for their parents. Of course, their parents didn’t think they did anything wrong, so good luck me trying to discipline them.
Maybe that’s why I begged my mother for an allowance so I wouldn’t have to babysit.
Nope. Either parents A (the parents who hired the babysitter) allowed 3 other kids to come over before the sitter arrived, and left without sending them home; or parents B (the parents of the friends who showed up) allowed their kids to visit friends when a teenaged babysitter was in charge. (And if they DIDN’T know a sitter was there, then shame on them TWICE!) Either way, some ADULT should have known better.
It is the babysitter’s primary responsibility to protect the kids. It is the parents’ primary responsibility to provide a safe environment while they are absent from the home. Stoves off. Doors locked. Kids being given the “If I come home to a bad report…” speech. Babysitter being given a contact number to call should she feel she can’t handle something. That was clearly not done.
Should Cogit have sent the other kids home earlier? Yes! Should the 3 other kids have been in the home in the first place? NO! She was hired, and agreed, to watch TWO children.
Ok a couple of things here. Yes the rant (semi-rant) in hindsight seems a lot more self centered than I normally am. And I am a teenager, but still, I usually am not THAT self centered. Anyway, I really did feel bad for the little girl who broke her arm. Also, I did not exactly run out to get hired either for this job. I was more or less forced to do it. Thirdly, I never said I was a good or even average babysitter. That’s why I never have tried to get a job as one. And about the friends, the parents said that I could allow some of their friends come over. The next day I didn’t make the same mistake.
Oh and as one addition, Feynn, (and yes this is going to sound self centered) the parents (lawyers, btw) did not think me responsible for this incident and they for some reason or other actually want to hire me next time they are in need. I’m beginning to think that they aren’t the sharpest knives in the drawer.
Frankly, COGNITO, you’re still sounding pretty self-centered.
This makes me SO impatient. Look, whether or not you “tried” to get the job, you TOOK it. Whether or not you were “more or less forced” into it, you TOOK it. And having taken it, you had a responsibility to do the job properly and at a bare minimum keep those kids from being injured. You failed, and “I didn’t want the job anyway” frankly SUCKS as an excuse.
If you say you’re going to do something, then do it right – especially when the health and welfare of other people (and kids, at that) hang in the balance. If you can’t do the job right, do the family a favor and stay home. Like I said, the next kid who suffers because you didn’t really WANT the job may be the one that’s hit by a car. It’s simple: If you say you’re going to do something, then do your best. Once you’ve agreed to do it (for whatever reason), whether you really wanted to do it is totally irrelevant.
Jodi,
I think you are missing my point. I never said that I gave a half assed try at it. I did do my best. Maybe that wasn’t very good, even for a first try, but I still did my best. I mean, hell, I even at one point told the parents that I didn’t have that much experience. Also, I later found out that Bri gets hurt and sometimes more seriously, a lot. For god sakes, she is 5.