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It’s the phone call I dread. When the baby sitter calls five minutes before she is supposed to arrive to watch my baby, the stress takes minutes off my life.
As a working mom running a news department, I must have a baby sitter. I can’t afford a nanny, and I have such odd hours that I can’t take my son to day care. So the only option left is hiring a baby sitter.
I am forced to leave my heart in the hands of another every weekday.
You hope and pray baby sitters will care for your child and guard him with their lives.
I work hard to find good people. I have found the best luck with young women who are going to college in Duluth. But even once I have found good people, I am amazed that some think it’s OK to pull out of the obligation and leave me in the lurch.
I have had good baby sitters; I call these people my Angels. Good baby sitters are worth their weight in gold. I appreciate them so much. But you will never believe what other
baby sitters have done.
I have had sitters send a text message to me five minutes before they were supposed to arrive to work saying they wouldn’t be coming that day. Then when I tried to call them back, they didn’t answer their phones.
I had one sitter just stop showing up, another sitter left me a two-page letter and yet another had her boyfriend call to say she no longer would be baby sitting.
If I can get one message across it’s this: When you tell parents you are going to watch their child, show up. Keep your word. Do not cancel unless you are sick and worried you may make the child sick. Do not text to
say you are not going to show up.
Call and be accountable for your actions. You may think it’s no big deal to cancel baby-sitting, but what you may not know is that you are leaving a mother and her child in an extremely stressful position.
A working mom has the pressure of showing her boss that she still can do the job even though she has a baby. If there are any hiccups at all, she could lose her job. Some bosses understand, but many do not.
For parents looking for baby sitters, the best Web site I’ve found is sitter city.com. Interview the
candidates, check if they are CPR-certified (if they aren’t — you can pay the $40 cost of their training) and then do a gut check.
If you have a bad feeling about someone caring for your child, pay attention to that feeling.
God gave you that “mommy instinct” for a reason. If I had it my way, no one would ever have to watch my baby but me.
But that is a childhood dream that clearly did not come true.
I am a working, single mom, the sole provider for my child, and I have to count on others to show up and do their jobs. So baby sitters, please cut parents some slack and show up to work.
Caring for a child is the most important job there is. Take care of our sweet children as if they were your own. Remember, someday you may be in our shoes.
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