Okay. I’m officially sick of journaling. Maybe I’ll take weekends off. Too bad it’s only Tuesday.

Write about a babysitting experience.

The first thing that popped in my mind when I saw this was the time I was babysitting two children who lived down the road from me. I was probably about 14 – I know I rode my bike there. Anyway, long story short, I made a judgement mistake and ended up doing something that I still wish I hadn’t. I can still feel the shame I felt when it all became clear that it had been the wrong choice.

Matter of fact, the shame is still so strong that I don’t even want to go into it here. And that’s probably a bad thing. Isn’t the point of a journal to bare the soul and get it all out?

After all, there are lots and lots of other babysitting experiences to document. I remember watching the toddlers at church. A little one was crying, and another teenager in there blew on his tummy to make him laugh. When she had to leave later, I tried it and he became hysterical. I felt so dumb and awkward.

I used to babysit Krislyn and Kevin all the time. One time I took them to Minco to play on the toys at Bill Johnson Park. I turned my back for literally one second and somehow Kevin morphed to the top of the giant slide. He was like two years old. I ran in slow motion to the slide, holding my hand out – “Keeeevvviiinnnn….nnnnoooooooo” – and he looked at me and fell over the side.

And I just knew when I got to him his skull was going to be cracked open and there was going to brain showing or something terrible like that but he was still intact and he cried but it was okay. I told Karlene all about it…on Kevin’s high school graduation day. At the time, I only told her that he had a little fall but seemed okay. I didn’t want to not be trusted with them anymore.

I also spent a school year babysitting two great boys every day after school. Best memories? Playing Castlevania on the old-school Nintendo with all the cheat codes and screaming when the final bad guy appeared, and the boys throwing popcorn at the television and shouting insults at Ranger Rick, the afternoon kids’ club host at the time. Worst memory? Allowing the older boy to ride on the back of my car (they lived in a tiny, hardly populated addition and I was going slow, but still), where he slid off and hit the gravel hard.

There’s also the time that Ben and I kept Krislyn, Kevin and Gary while Karlene and James were in Branson or something. Gary was very small…three months old or less. Ben and I took turns taking care of him in the night. Ben didn’t know that you shouldn’t leave a little baby without a diaper for even a minute when you change them. So Ben was up changing him and feeding him and Gary went to town in that bassinett and there was poop everywhere. Poor Ben.

Poor me, too, because on that same visit, I had both big kids in bed with me one evening because Ben was watching TV with his friends. I asked him to please move the kids when he came to bed, because they had bedwetting issues. He agreed but then fell asleep in front of the TV and the friends let themselves out. When I woke up, I couldn’t figure out why I was so wet. Is this sweat?my mind asked. Then I realized and got up quick. Both kids were already gone. I stepped onto the carpet and squished into another damp spot. Seems Krislyn had gotten mad and moved to the floor in the night.

And still, with all of this, the memory of the time down the road still pricks my mind, and it’s still painful.

It really wasn’t a big deal. And I have to remind myself that I was still pretty much a kid myself.

Okay, see, these kids rode the bus with me. They were great kids, and I enjoyed their company. So their parents asked me to babysit, and I did, several times.

The last time I did it, the little boy was sick. Not bad sick, just not able to play outside sick. And I was a fun babysitter who was open to the idea of playing outside, under normal circumstances.

So we watched TV, and played inside. But the kids really wanted to show me something they had been building down at the creek. We couldn’t go, because he was sick. But they really wanted me to see it. The boy (he was maybe 9) really wanted me and his sister to just go ahead and look at it really quick. He said he would be okay in the house for a couple of minutes while we walked down there.

They both wanted it so bad that I finally gave in. And before you’re wondering, nothing bad happened. The house didn’t burn down, the kid didn’t die, and everything was fine.

The only bad thing was that the kids’ grandparents happened to drive by and they could see the two of us at the creek. They asked what was going on, and I told them we just walked over for a second to see whatever it even was. They were obviously hacked and didn’t agree with my decision and told us we’d better get back to the house right away. So we did.

And that was the last time I babysat for them.

I don’t even know if the parents were mad. The kids never said that they were and we still were on the bus all the time together. Also, I was hired to babysit for their cousins later that year, and they said they called me because of the original parents’ recommendation. So I don’t know what to think.

Incidentally, that one wasn’t too hot either – the parents were taking their first night out since learning their daughter was ill with something…diabetes maybe? They went to Remington Park. They wanted us to contact them if there were any problems, no matter how small. This was, of course, before cell phones. So the little girl got sick with a fever and I had to call the parents. I had to call Remington Park and ask for them, and they finally found them. I told them that I didn’t think they needed to come home, but I knew they wanted to know. Well, they were really worried, and they came home.

That was the only time I babysat for them too. I heard later that they didn’t go out much after that.

So, that’s my babysitting experiences in a nutshell. One dollar per hour per child, whoohoo!