I love my 16 hour/no shower days. I feel refreshed, beautiful and sexy. I should ask Dennis if he still wants that second baby because really… can I be any more exhausted?
Babysitter #3 was here today. I like her. Let’s hope the third time is the charm. I used to hire people for a living. I like to believe I have seen it all: a manager who listed her email on the CV as “sexykitten”, a guy who asked for a minute to pray (out loud) before and after the interview (in the interview room) and you would be surprised how many people describe their ex-boss as an “idiot” or “asshole”. I always imagine them saying that to their boss too. Just try saying it out loud in your most cheerful and delightful high-pitch voice:
Thanks for all your help today, idiot! (could be a great ending of the email too)
Have a lovely weekend, asshole! (as you wave passing by his office)
I really thought hiring a babysitter would be a breeze. And here I am almost 8 months into this business of motherhood pulling my hair out trying to find a person who doesn’t think I will just hand them out cash for watching my TV… oh wait… I think I actually did that.
After the disaster with babysitter #1 we were just too excited to find a person who didn’t treat our child as a 2 year old. The idea was to train her to put Leila to bed while we enjoy our date night. However by the time we actually finished training the babysitter #2, Leila switched to much earlier bed time which meant she was always asleep when #2 started her shift. So I was literally handing out cash to a stranger for sitting in my living room and watching TV while baby was asleep. I have to admit it bugged me a little that she wouldn’t offer to do anything else, but when we hired her we all agreed that she will only take care of the baby. A deal is a deal and I was honoring it. However being consistently late, confusing Thursdays with Fridays and not showing up on the day I actually had to drive to the airport to pick up my mother… was not something we have agreed on. So that was the end of #2.
(There has to be some sort of reality TV show similar to the “Bachelor” where a mother gets to pick a perfect babysitter and they live happily ever after)
Dennis has been working insane amount of hours. If this continues I will have to tell Leila that daddy is like Santa Clause – you will never see him, but once you wake up there is going to be an evidence that he has visited us (paid bills, for example…) Unfortunately some people at daddy’s work have never heard of a five-day work week either. This is all temporary. Or at least this is what I am told. Meanwhile I need to shower. I could of course shower now instead of typing this valuable, high-priority post, but then that would mean that I have it all together.
So for numerous reasons we will have babysitter #3 come in during the day while I am at home. Her job will be to play with Leila for a couple of hours while I go to appointments, cook, clean and iron…. or just have a Mimosa at the pool.
Hiring a babysitter scares me. We have only gone out sans baby a handful of times and every time we've left her with my mom. I'm glad that ya'll make time to be together and go on dates and get some mommy alone time. It helps to be away from the baby sometimes.
Hang in there, girl! I have no idea how hard it is, but it is absolutely worth it.
Babysitting was always my go-to job in times of transition–after college, between traveling, etc. I'd have a few months and I wanted a flexible job that I enjoyed. Hence: watching children. I always informed the parents that I could only do it for x amount of months (usually 3 to 6), and they still hired me. I asked one woman (whose kids I still miss) why she didn't go for someone more long-term, and she said "The good ones are always short term. Hands down. They are usually students, on their way to bigger and better things, but they are the kind of people who try to do EVERYTHING they do well. They don't see my kids as something to be tolerated while they earn easy money, they see them as their JOB. And I haven't been able to find that, strangely, from people who actually CALL babysitting their job."
I summarize, but you get the idea. I thought that was very interesting. For now, I live so close to my parents that it's not an issue for me, but I've always remembered that.
If we lived closer together I would definitely suggest we take turns watching each others' babies.
You are a stronger mom than I. I haven't found a sitter yet, but desperately need to. The last woman I checked out is perfect, but I still left the interview crying. Let us know how #3 works out.
Mimosa by the pool has my vote!
Childcare is hard to find these days, or should I say GREAT, RELIABLE, and TRUSTWORTHY childcare is hard to find. It seems that some are only seeking a job. They don't care if it's rewarding or not. Therefore, the children suffer.
I hope #3 is the magic number, my friend!
Hugs and Mocha,
Stesha
First of all, I think the Babysitter reality show is a brilliant idea.
Second, I hope #3 works out and I'm so glad that you will be using the time to do things you need to do like bathe. I swear I can smell you all the way over here. Oh no, that's me. Never mind.
That is the best way to get a babysitter. You can really see how she is with the kid and how the kid is with her. Once you are confident, then you can use her more when you are not home. Oh, BTW, showers are so overrated.
Ellen
We had a baby sitter once, a relative in fact, who we hired to purposely come and just be there after the kids were in bed. How hard could that be right? Well, she kept hearing "strange noises" so kept going upstairs to check on the kids, which of course woke my two year old up. So what did she do? Well she brought her downstairs and started a show for her at 10:30 at night.
Good luck!