Did I miss that memo?
Here’s the thing. We have never really employed a baby sitter in the 13 years we have been parents.
Well not often anyway.
We also paid one of the girls next door to look after them once, so I can think of maybe three times we have ever actually hired a baby sitter.
Part of the reason stems from Kai being such a sick baby. I honestly didn't trust anyone to look after him because - I mean what if something happened and I wasn't there?
Yeah, I have a tendency to catastrophize things.
Yeah, I have a tendency to catastrophize things.
So we have got around this by just not going anywhere that we can't take the squids with us and that’s OK, I’m so not complaining because truthfully we like having them with us.
It’s just that recently Carl and I have been craving some time to ourselves every now and then. You know to go out for a romantic dinner or lunch and be all grown up like without having to wipes noses or tell anyone to stop playing with salt shakers or escort little people to the bathroom fifty freaking times before the main meal.
Also, now that the boy's appetites are getting bigger, we can't get away with splitting meals between them so it would be a welcome change to go out for dinner every now and then without having to take out a second mortgage.
Just once a month would do us.
We don't want to have to ask my parents to do that for us so we decided it was high time we find ourselves a reliable baby sitter. Well slap me silly and call me Billy - every time I ask someone about their baby sitter it’s like I am asking them if they have ever had an std - they wont make eye contact with me and suddenly they have an urgent need to be somewhere else.
What?
What did I do?
Is it that they think I am going to poach their baby sitter from them? You know steal them away with a bit of chloroform and a promise of angelic children and an extra fifty bucks?
Yeah. No! That's not my intention.
I just want to know - how does one go about finding the right baby sitter?
How old should he or she be?
How much do you pay them?
What is baby sitter etiquette, like are you supposed to drive them home?
Can you help a gal out with some info if I promise not to poach yours?