Babysitter

On Saturday we had a wedding to go to. On Friday afternoon we STILL didn't have a babysitter. We'd known about the wedding for months, so we had no excuse. A few weeks earlier Jeff had to miss a party because we couldn't find a sitter. I didn't know it was going to be such a difficult task to find someone to pay $12 an hour to play with Lucas.

We (I) actually started looking for a sitter a few weeks ago. I talked about it with Kim and Wendy and we said that we were all ready to find a regular sitter that we could rely on. At first I thought we could just ask some friends at the park who they used, but Kim advised against this. She said that she had done this and gotten snubbed a few times... like, "how dare you ask me if you can use MY nanny" look from the women.

My next idea was to send an email to this Yahoo group that I belong to in my neighborhood. I got about 5 names from that and thought I had a good list, but two of the girls are traveling for the next few months, two won't be here until the fall, and one only babysits on week nights. That's the problem with college girls - they have a life and are often busy.

My last resort option was to use a local sitter service that is spoken highly of by friends. It costs $39 for a list of names that is updated each quarter, or you can pay $99 a year and get a new list of names every three months (the list changes along with the girl's schedule in college). Another option is to pay $13 for a one time placement (with a vow to never call the girl again unless you sign up for a membership). On Thursday afternoon, after several strike outs, I said "whatever" and called the service. The owner was so nice and even told me that if I wanted to sign up for the $39 list that is published in September that she'd wave the one time placement fee. Deal. She apparently couldn't find one of her girls with that short of notice, so she called her 45 year old aunt that helps her out sometimes.

This lady's name was Chelsey and she was so wonderful. I was actually happy to get a woman older than college age because Lucas responds better to this age. I could tell that he liked her from the start. After about 10 min of being quiet, he took her to his playroom and was showing her the train table and how he could do puzzles. He was saying, "Miss Chelsey, Miss Chelsey, watch this!" She said all of the right things and I felt great leaving him with her. When I told him that Mama and Dada were about to leave for our date he gave me a hug and then called me back by saying, "kiss, kiss."

When we returned four hours later Chelsey said that he was awesome. She made us feel so good... said that he was very polite... said "thank you" and "please", put his plate away, etc. They had fun playing hide and seek, puzzles, train and watching the bug movie.

We may use her again if she's willing... she said she was.