Life Lessons Learned

You can read the 1st and 2nd installments.

Ohmigord I am going to me a Mom. A Mother. I have to know EVERYTHING. I have to be able to DO everything. This is all I have EVER wanted for my life. Since I was a little girl and played with cabbage patch dolls (for a little to long :ahem: but we'll just skip over that part). But now that the reality is here I don't know what to do. I don't know how much fabric to buy to make a blanket, I don't know all the cooking stuff you need to know in the kitchen, I still don't know exactly how to make Mom's special home made pie crust, I'm no good at hanging things on the wall, or if your car is making a certain noise what is wrong with it. These are all things my Mom is amazing at. She HAS to teach me everything before Hailey starts asking me for help with things!

All that to say I have experienced quite a bit over the years from various babysitting/Nanning jobs. I simply ADORE children. Always have.
I had this one family, we'll just call them the L's. They had 3 kids (all whose names started w/ a K which I find terribly annoying because it would take me all 3 frickin names to get to the one kid I actually needed to yell at........so annoying). These kids were ADORABLE. Gorgeous. But they were brats. Spoiled rotten. I am not a push over, if I say something I stick with it. If I threaten something I go through with it. These kids hated me for this. They were NOT good. But the Mom was my Mom's friend so she used to just call my Mom and have her set up babysitting. It was annoying. Anyways, the couple horrible times at their house that stand out in my mind were one night I went over there around 6ish right after dinner. The Mom proceeds to tell me that the oldest K missed 2 days of school that week w/ a stomach virus and had been puking/pooping all over the house. Oh joy. She thinks he gave it to the youngest who was now pooping everywhere but had yet to puke. So THAT makes it OK to leave your kids home sick w/ a poor 15 year old girl??
First I also must interject that I do NOT deal well with puke. I am a symphony "puker". I don't usually puke but I will gag and dry heave very very bad if I see, smell, or hear somebody throwing up. It's BAD. I can not handle it. Poop I hate but I can deal w/ w/out getting sick. Puking not so much. Me and Steve made a pact that when our kids are sick I will deal w/ all the #2's and he gets all the pukes. Baby pukes are fine but grown up throw up is another thing. OK now that we have that said.........
The little girl K was only about 2 1/2 at the time and didn't understand when she was about to get sick or anything so she proceeded to have about 3 "episodes" of poo in her clothes and all over the floor in about an hour. I felt horrible for her. I kept just putting her in the tub and washing her down, then going and scrubbing the floor. It was horrible. But no puke yet so I dealt with it and didn't call the parents home. Then the middle boy K decided his tummy hurt really bad and that he needed milk. I told him NO he was only allowed to have water. I knew from my Mom (who knows everything of course) if your tummy hurts to only have water. Milk will make you throw up if your tummy is upset. So he went and got himself a glass of milk while I was cleaning up a poo episode and guzzled the thing thinking it would help his tummy. Guess who puked ALL over the floor 2 seconds later? That is when I lost it. I called confrence the parents were at and got some front desk/security guy who could care less that this 15 year old girl was hysterical and crying in the phone. Ah the days before cell phones right?? haha. He refused to go in the room and find the parents and get them for me. I begged and pleaded and didn't know what to do. I called my Mom who lived about 3 blocks away and asked her to come help. She didn't come over (which I didn't care about I just needed SOMETHING) but she promised to call the conference and get L and R home to their sick children. About 3 minutes later L calls and asks what happened. "UM your kids are puking and pooping all over and NEED thier MOTHER". So she sighs and says she GUESSES they will be home. I slammed down the phone only to find Little K puking. Yay. I freaked. I was not going to make it. I had been there for like 2 1/2 hours and had dealt with 5 poops (yea the boys made it to the bathroom but I still had to clean up their clothes), and 2 pukes. OMG it was horrible. FINALLY about 20 minutes later the parents come home and give me $10 and tell me to walk home. OMG I was furious it was like March so it was cold out and it was pitch black dark. I was soooooooooo pissed. I refused to ever babysit for them ever again. Of course I did though. Ha.
Months later the L's were building a house and sold the one they currently lived in (by my parents) early so had to live in an apartment until thier house was done. So they rented a tiny 2 bedroom apt and lived there a couple months. I only had to go over there once thank goodness, I don't recall where the parents were, but it was a gorgeous summer night and the kids wanted to play at the play ground that was in the back part of their building. The older boys were outside and me and little K were inside playing dolls or something girly. I heard some scary ppl yelling in the hall and slamming doors so I decided to lock the front door and go outside with the boys so I knew we were all safe. I took the cordless phone w/ me so I could call my BFF later while they kids were playing. I shut the sliding glass door behind me and went and played w/ the kids. Nobody decided to tell me (or the landlord appairently) that the door was broken and would automatically lock behind you and to always leave the front door open so you could get back in. Yeah would have been nice to know huh? I did not know 1 soul in the building and wasn't about to start knocking on doors asking for help and run into the scary screaming ppl so I called my parents and my Dad came over and saved us. He picked us all up and took us back to my parents house where all the kids fell asleep on the floor watching a Disney Movie. I was able to get a hold of the parents to tell them to pick up the kids from my parents and not go to back to the apt. I was so furious why wouldn't they warn me or give me a key or something?? Seriously those ppl were a couple screws loose.............luckily they moved to Oregon or something a couple years later and I was finally cut off from babysitting for them.

Another one of my favorite stories was when I was a nanny for a family while I was in high school. The Mom taught Kindergarten 1/2 days and all day on Friday so I would be with her 3 kids (who were 3, 2, and a newborn) for 9 hours every Friday. I seriously LOVED it. It was the greatest job ever. If I could have bottled up those kids and kept them small forever I would always watch them and love on them. I seriously loved them to death! They were sooooooo good and sweet for me and it was some of the funnest times of my life going over there. Well, S (the Mom) called me earlier in the week to tell me Baby J was sick and she was staying home but didn't know about Friday yet. Knowing how competent (unlike some ppl) she was I knew she would NEVER leave her sick baby or let me watch a sick baby. Sick babies need thier Momma's and she knew this. So by Friday he was doing MUCH better but still hadn't had a whole bottle of milk yet b/c his little system couldn't handle it. I don't know what was going on that day but I was only needed the 2nd half of the day and he was with his crazy whacko aunt who I couldn't stand that whole morning. Well, over bearing crazy Aunt C thought he looked way to skinny and was hungry and decided to shove a 8 oz bottle of formula down him. I was pissed. I knew S told me not to give him any formula and I told Aunt C this as I saw her feeding him. She handed him to me and told me to finish giving it to him, it had been a couple days since he last puked and he would be fine. I sat there holding him in my arms and talking to him and bam all the sudden the volcano of puke erupted all over me. All down the front of my shirt, in my lap, even in my hair. OMG it was sooooooo disgusting. Luckily the house I nannied at was about 7 down from my parents so I was able to run home really quick and change my clothes. Aunt C had to pick her older kids up from school though so I couldn't wash my hair or take a shower or anything I didn't have time. I had to pull my hair back in a pony tail and have stinky baby formula puke hair all day. Oh my it was lovely. I just felt sooooo bad for the poor baby.

Ah memories!!!

So moral of this blog is: If your Baby is sick do NOT leave it with a babysitter. Stop being selfish and give up your night out or the extra $ you would make working and just STAY HOME!