Playing for a Living, or trying anyway.

Today marks my third day in my new second job.  I’m baby kid sitting for my boss.  She has two girls, one is seven and the other is four.  They are beautiful girls.  One looks exactly like her mom and the other looks exactly like her dad. They are loads of fun.  The only problem is that the last time I babysat for money I was sixteen.  I’m learning that I had a lot more energy when I was sixteen, and surprisingly enough, a longer attention span.  After 3 hours of playing hide and seek, Uno, dress-up, doctor, house, duck-duck-goose, and freeze-tag I’m exhausted.  It sounds like a lot, but when it’s all happening, I’m bored after the first five minutes of each new game and already trying to think of something else to do. 

Another thing is that I’m supposed to be a grown-up now, but I don’t have any more knowledge of kids now than I did then.  I am not what you would call “motherly”.  My first day watching the girls the four year-old had an ear infection.  She came to the door crying (I’m there when they get dropped off from school).  So, I gave her some children’s Tylenol, as instructed, and sat on the couch with her.  She curled up and took a short nap.  By the time her sister got home the Tylenol had set in.  The three of us played really hard for 3 solid hours, during which, I accidentally elbowed her in the mouth as I jumped up for being tagged in duck-duck-goose.  We stopped playing, waited for the bleeding to cease, and then we were at it again.  Only this time she was the walker.  When she said “goose” I got up and started to chase her.  (In their version of the game you say “goose” then run all over the house until I catch you.)  As she rounded a corner her feet slipped out from underneath her and she fell right on her side.  She screamed!  I knew it had to hurt.  So, I picked her up, checked out the soon-to-be bruised area, and decided that maybe we had played enough.  Through tears she asked for more Tylenol, poor girl.  Once she had calmed down we started dinner.  The older girl helped me make turkey rolls with turkey, cheese and croissants.  While we were making dinner the younger fell asleep on the couch.  I woke her to offer dinner but she declined.  She slept for the next hour and a half until her dad got home.  When he got home, I had to hand over an already sick child that now had a fat lip and bruised behind. I had broken her.  It was awful.  And the worse thing of all is that it wasn’t until that moment that it even occurred to me that maybe you aren’t supposed to let a sick child play that hard.  Well, lesson learned.  Good thing I learned it on someone else’s kid.  J/K. 

I’ll be going over there in a couple of hours for more exhausting fun.  Hopefully, I will make it without learning any more lessons.  I’ll let you know.