Getting a Babysitter for the First Time

So funny! So true! Another amazingly hilarious book about new motherhood you’ve got to check out is “Mama Tried” by New Yorker cartoonist Emily Flake:

http://www.emilyflake.com/mama-tried/

Seriously. You won’t regret it – I LOL’d so many times and it’s cartoons would make a great blog post! (Full disclosure – I’m a playground friend of Emily and her amazing daughter Tug – but even if I weren’t I still would have LOL’d reading Mama Tried) ?

When I went back to work my daughter was only a few months old. My father watched her in the mornings. The first day, I left him a one-page, typed, single-spaced list of instructions- which he threw in the trash as soon as I left. When I found the list in the garbage later later and asked him about it, he was like, “I raised you and you’re fine.” That made me relax. A little.

Yes! Haha! I left a diagram on how to SWADDLE a baby and list of activities L loved. I was a total nutcase/nervous first time mom. I even set out her bouncer and showed the sitter how it worked, even though there were only 2 buttons – vibrate and music.

Ugh I never thought I’d be a mother who had a hard time leaving her baby with a sitter…but I am! So far I’ve left her with her father, my mother, and my sister-in-law. Now that she’s 8 months old, the instructions I leave them with are sparser…and sometimes I don’t even text to see how things are going! But the Moms Club chapter I’m a part of recently hosted a babysitters meet and greet, and while I met some very lovely and seemingly competent sitters there, it feels SO unsettling to leave my baby with a virtual stranger!

The first time we tried leaving my son was a disaster. We left him with my mom (grandmother to 5, teacher of many decades) and with a bottle of carefully pumped milk. He woke up as we walked out the door, so she gave him the milk which ended up everywhere (but in the baby’s mouth). We managed one drink. The next time was a couple of months later when I left him with my husband to go out for a friend’s birthday drinks. It was AWESOME wearing something non breast feeding (!) and carrying the world’s smallest bag with stuff only I needed (!!). But – I spent the whole 1.5 hours I was at the drink showing people pictures of him, thinking about him and missing him like crazy

Our babysitter works at our daycare and we may be a little too comfortable because the first time we left our son at about 6 months we rushed out the door after showing her where everything was kept without giving her our phone numbers, emergency numbers, or telling her where we’d be. I had to text her a short while later, after I’d realized my mistake.

Can’t wait to read this book! I ordered my copy!

HILARIOUS! My kids are now 33 and 35 and it still rings true!

When I came back to work after my maternity leave I was lucky enough to be able to count on the help of my morther, but I gave her a sort of booklet entitled “Matteo Leonardo: instructions for use”, where I had specified every sort of information about my son’s habits and needs and how to act in almost every circumstances

That’s so funny! I’m not a mom, but I can definitely imagine being exactly like that when the time comes!

It is hilarious indeed, but I have to say I don’t recognize myself in it – my daughter is 2 months old and we have been going out without her since she was one week old, and never really worried – we have two really great trained nurses who sometimes stay the night (they work at an actual hospital with babies) and they know about babies far more than we do – I am much calmer when my daughter is with one of them than when my parents in law or my mom are babysitting! I just think you have to find the right person… NB we live in Paris, France, so it is of course easier when you live in a big city.

The first time I left the house was for a restorative yoga class (I was rather mangled after giving birth and needed it desparately). My husband was staying with our son, so not even a sitter.
I kept my phone right next to me (during yoga.!) and checked it constantly.
I was, in fact, thinking about the baby so intensively, I made my breasts leak so badly (drops falling down), I had to leave early.

My Mum sat for our 9 month old last weekend, and it was a parent’s dream! After Mum’s first attempt two months ago (4hours of solid crying) she spent two days in advance taking careful notes of everything I did with Hattie so she could replicate my strategies exactly! They had a lovely day together in the end, so thanks Mum for being a superstar babysitter!

I had the same experience when we had to change to a different nanny when our son turned 2. I had our kitchen and living room walls taped with papers full of reminders and instructions. My friend had a good laugh when she visited. I guess, I was her first or only friend who did that.

Lol, still am. We rarely leave our three kids home with other people. We miss them too much.

Hilarious!

http://everydaymusingsbyanna.blogspot.com/

Have you seen this one? It is HILARIOUS!

https://www.mcsweeneys.net/articles/jamie-and-jeffs-note-to-the-babysitter

*sigh* My son is almost six and we are just now sort of beginning to maybe start to consider thinking about leaving him with a non-family-member, actual hired and paid babysitter. I’m fully aware that this is ridiculous.
Someone smack me please.

When your kid has a serious heart condition no one wants to baby sit for you! We adopted her at age 3.5, and had no family support. She didn’t have a sitter until she was 5 with our Grandparent-wannabe across the street neighbors, with few worries from us!
Someone needs to make a video regarding Grandparents. If your child happens to be the youngest ( mine now 13, the oldest 36) you get the Cliff Notes version of Granparenting. The Oldest grandchild in my family was seen almost daily, showered with gifts and attention. My child as the youngest sees them maybe fours times a year!!

Such a cute and funny post! I enjoyed reading even though I don’t have kids! :)

xx, Hannah

http://www.missharwell.com

I don’t often leave my toddler with a babysitter. Not because I’m worried about him, but because I’m worried about the babysitter. The kid’s a handful!

I babysat a lot of newborns as a teenager. After I had my first baby, I thought, “Oh my gosh! I didn’t do half of the stuff I am doing now with any of those newborns! WHAT WAS I DOING?!”

Please tell me I’m not alone in this. Seriously, were they just sleeping the whole time?? That can’t be right. I don’t remember frequent feeding or changing or waking up. Maybe I just have a bad memory!

Ha ha this is hilarious and true, but here in India grandparents help so mothers are usually happyct be rid of their child for a break.

Shruthi
http://nyambura.co

This makes me so sad that people don’t go out with friends, or with their significant other for months (or years!) on end. My husband and I get a babysitter about every two weeks to just go out and grab dinner alone. When we leave my son’s already in his crib, and we don’t go in unless he’s crying, which he does before falling asleep about once a year, so he likely doesn’t even know we’re gone. I still tell him the deal before we leave though just in case :) To each their own, but my husband and I get along so much better if we have some grown up time alone every so often!

In our case, grandparents on both sides were in other countries, so that was out. We asked around and were referred to a local woman. It was great–when she couldn’t make it, she would find us someone else, and insist they get the same amount she did (which was very low–€5 an hour, and €25 for the night if it went past midnight). She was totally fine–she worked at the preschool by day.
I never expected her to fix dinner, though. I always had my kid’s dinner cooked and ready to go (including the right-size bites, which progressively got bigger with age). And we left food for the baby sitter. Duh. Though she never touched it.
Eventually, our kid got bigger and didn’t want somebody from the PRESCHOOL to babysit, so we turned to local teens. But it was a constant turnover–they usually were too scared to be in a house alone at night until they were about 15, then they got their driver’s licenses at 18 (France) and that was the end of babysitting.