Like it or not, babysitting is usually one of the easiest ways to make money. Rather than sitting bored at an office all day and getting people coffee to earn $8 an hour (or sometimes nothing), you’re playing with Barbies and watching Nick Jr. for hours on end for $10-15 an hour. Despite the allure of earning more money and avoiding going into an office, watching kids for an entire afternoon or evening isn’t always a walk in the park. Here’s our take on the stuff that really goes down while babysitting.
1. Before the parents leave, you promise them that everything will go smoothly.
You have to silence the voice in your inner head that wants to beg them to not come home on time.
2. The kids, as usual, are well-behaved at first.
You’re just waiting for the first sign of evil…
3. Before you know it, you’re playing “house,” Hide & Seek or a board game.
Okay, you’d be lying if you said you didn’t love an excuse to play Hide & Seek.
4. When they’re bored of that, you entertain them by letting them take and send selfies to whomever they please on Snapchat.
Cute kids are always a nice surprise on a Snap story.
5. After you’ve barely been there an hour, you will find that you’ll answer one question 100 times… “When will my mom be home?”
“I promise, your mom will be home soon,” you say for the thousandth time.
6. …And if one of the kids you’re watching is between the ages of 3-8, be prepared to answer a lot more questions than just that one.
*Fighting the urge to not yell “HAVE YOU EVER HEARD OF GOOGLE?” at a toddler*
7. You know you have to feed them, but they’re picky and each want something different.
Ordering pizza is not only the easy way out – it’s also what makes you their favorite babysitter.
8. You don’t want to be a bum babysitter, so you clean the kitchen so that the parents can come home to a tidy house.
You might as well write “Please pay me well” on your forehead in Sharpie.
9. You can’t forget that food makes kids sticky, so you do your best to clean all of their hands and mouths before they can touch anything.
Of course they’ve already made it to the couch, so you’ll be cleaning that as well. Great.
10. When it’s time to pick a movie or TV show, things can go very right or very wrong.
There is a BIG difference between getting to watch an original Disney classic and having to sit through some cheesy cartoon movie you’ve never heard of.
11. Regardless of what they pick, you find that you don’t really watch it anyways.
You’re too busy letting them take turns sitting in your lap to braid their hair and getting up to get them more water when they want it.
12. When it’s finally bedtime, you might think you should be relieved – but you still have to make it through the nighttime routine.
Who doesn’t love getting soaked while bathing a 4-four-year old and then dealing with the “I don’t want to go to bed” temper tantrum?!
13. They beg you to sing them a song, which you say no to until they make puppy dog eyes – so you relent. Ugh.
Hopefully they like some acoustic, poorly performed Beyonce covers.
14. Once they’re in bed, you’re home free.
That is, until one of the kids inevitably gets out of bed claiming he or she is still hungry or still thirsty or not tired.
15. Despite how torturous it was at times or the fact that it seemed to last forever, you’d still do it again.
And you do. Because, let’s be real, anything is better than having to dress nice and go into the office.