This coming Monday (a day that I usually do not work), my boss has asked me to hire, and leave instructions for a babysitter that is sleeping over with them Sunday night, and then taking them to camp on Monday morning. My boss originally asked me if I wanted the extra hours, but I graciously declined. 120 hours is enough for me this week. It's sweet of her to offer though.
Anyway, this is a babysitter that we have used a few times before (I thought it better to use her than someone completely new - you know, as to not completely freak the kids out), but has never been with the girls for more than 4 hours at a time and is not the most organized, motivated sitter I have met. The bottom line is she isn't a Nanny. And yes, there is a difference. But she is sweet with the kids and they seem to like her enough, so it works out. So tonight, as I am laying here watching "Tangled" with the girls for the 3rd time this week, I decided to get to work on writing the instructions for the babysitter. What I thought might take me 30 minutes at the most, is turning into a 2-day "get ready for the babysitter" preparation. After typing the poor girl a 3-page newsletter about all of the things that we do every morning between 6am and the start of camp (8:30am), in addition to directions to the camp, parking, explicit walking directions to the girl's separate classrooms (yes, I may draw a map), camp attire (no sandals, specific shoes, etc.), and the wonderful explanation of what to do in the event of Monkey having a (probable) meltdown when the sitter tries to say goodbye, thus "abandoning" her at camp. And by meltdown I mean her hanging on my leg and screaming and crying for a good 15 minutes before I can detach her and leave. Anyway after writing all of this I am realizing just how much work it is to hire a sitter! For about 13 hours, mind you! So far it has looked like this:
1. Typing and printing out the novel also known as the "schedule." This girl is going to think that a.) I am crazy! b.) I think she is a total idiot, or c.) I don't believe she has ever babysat children before. (And I am making myself crazy thinking I am forgetting things! I mean, how is she going to know that one of the detangler sprays works amazing and the other one is useless? That's important!)
2. Making plans to pack lunches for Monday, on Saturday before I leave for two days, because they are so specific about what they eat that one mistake could lead to 5 steps backwards with all of the food progress we have made lately. The last thing I want is to find out they had Doritos in their lunch or something! (Jk, kind of). Mixed that in with Z having a serious peanut allergy - better to not take any chances!
3. Packing all necessary items for "Water Day" (which of course happens to fall on Monday) for Monkey, as the teacher sent home a very detailed list of what they need for that day. If they don't have absolutely everything, then they can't participate. Great.
4. Doing the laundry because god forbid that magenta t-shirt is not clean for Monkey on Monday. I would not want the sitter to deal with the wrath of that episode!
5. And lastly, going back and adding things to the schedule (maybe instruction sheet - or Syllabus - is a better word for this now 5-page document) after my boss emails me to tell me that the sitter has never had to get the kids dressed before or given them breakfast, etc. Awesome. There goes my night off.
So my point in sharing all of this is that I never knew how hard it is to leave the kids with someone else! Granted I am not their mom, and when I did start here, I didn't have a tutorial or any instructions - I just had a lot of previous experience, learned the way of things around here pretty fast, and now 9 weeks (and nearly 1000 hours later), I am an old pro. And I guess because I do this every day, I forget just how much work it is. And going through, writing out a schedule, and actually calculating what I do all day is exhausting! In fact, it seems easier to me to just come in on my day off and do it all myself because I feel like it would take less time and energy than all this preparation. Not to mention the worrying that will occur 12 minutes away, in Sherman Oaks, tucked away in my little apartment, on my day OFF. I will be up with the sun wondering if the girls finagled her into letting them have ice cream for breakfast, or let them leave the house with rat's nests the size of Texas, or even worse, remnants of the ice cream on their faces and stuck to their unbrushed teeth...
I guess the worst case scenario here is that they have one day where they go to camp wearing dirty, unmatched clothes, sandals (forbidden at camp and warrants a note home), filled with sugar and crying their heads off when she leaves them there. All in all, I'm glad I won't be here to see it!
That's it - I officially feel like a mom. And it's times like these where I need to pinch myself to remind myself that I'm not.
It's bedtime for this working girl. Yup, it's 7pm. Turns out, those blackout curtains apply to nannies as well.
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