Adventures in Babysitting

My husband Kevin and I are seasoned babysitters. Both of us entered the working world as pre-teens with careers in babysitting the neighbor kids. For me it was the two little toddler neighbor boys who had lisps and perpetually called me "Thawah." For Kevin it was the same, only they called him "Tebin." Even though we have doubled in age, we are still babysitting, though less as a career and more just for fun until we start our own family. Last week we babysat two little girls for the first time who, though rather shy, seemed to warm up to us pretty quickly. Yet, when it was time for bed the younger one turned to see Kevin, only to have her little eyes fill with fear. She then proceeded to point at Kevin and sob. So Kevin spent the rest of the evening reading the paper while I changed diapers and read stories. Kevin's feelings might have been just a little hurt, but then their parents later explained that she doesn't seem to like men with beards.

Then last night we babysat our old buddies Nathaniel and Hannah. We've known these two kids for over three years now--we met them at my first contextual education site. We haven't actually spent a lot of time with them in a few years, since we have been away from the Twin Cities, so we weren't sure what to expect. When we met them they were very small and shy 3 and 5 year olds with glasses. Now that they are 6 and 8 they are, for all practical purposes, "all grown-up." We no longer have to help them brush their teeth or change their clothes. Their baby lisps are gone, so they actually call us "Sarah and Kevin" and they no longer have toddler glasses, they have "cool" glasses with funky colors and designs. But as the night went on we realized that some things have remained the same--Hannah still likes to tell story after story about her friends at school and still has the same doll. Nathaniel still likes to be read to and twirl my hair with his fingers while I do so and is still IN LOVE with the Minnesota Twins. All in all, it was really fun, and it felt pretty neat to know that they still liked having us around to play Tickle Monster and tell them goodnight stories. It kind of made me realize that even though kids grow up fast, some things don't seem to change.