Danny ChaiSo I helped babysit on Saturday for the family LTG. 3 babysitters, 9 kids aged 1 to 4. Young handled the older kids, me and this girl handled the younger ones.
You know, I haven’t watched kids a whole lot. I realized that I lack a fundamental understanding of what kids are like. So the kids made a mess of the room, just emptying everything and throwing it all over the place. Afterwards, while helping the mother of the house clean up, I was apologizing to her for the mess. And she responded, “It’s OK. The kids were playing. That’s what kids do.”
Hmm. That’s true. Kids play and make messes. That’s what they do. I think I knew that, but I didn’t really *know* that, if that makes any sense. Anyway, put 9 kids together and that tendency is reinforced exponentially.
Another thing kids do: cry. So at times, the younger kids would just cry. No real clue why. And when one kid starts crying, that sets off others. Some, you just have to hold. Some, you have to distract. But I kept asking myself why they’re crying. And I dunno, there are reasons and whatever, but fundamentally, kids just cry. It’s what they do. Who knew.
The scariest moment was when Young was occupied, me and the other sitter were each holding a crying baby, and one of the older girls comes up and says, “I’m going to use the bathroom by myself, OK?” DANGER. Is it OK? No clue. Too scared to let her go by herself. Too busy to go with her. Too risky to ask her to hold it. Panic. I actually don’t know how it was resolved but I didn’t smell urine all morning. I take that to be a good sign.