For Better or For Worse by Lynn Johnston for February 19, 2018

SPOILER ALERT

Get some practice Michael, you’ll be needing it in a couple of years.

It seems to me Annie has not yet met Martha.

Whoa now Annie! You want 12-year-old Michael who has never babysat before in his life, has never changed a diaper, and who is right at this moment fighting with his younger sister to be your babysitter? Why not ask Elly if she could come over for a few hours? John is not so incompetent he can’t take care of his own kids for an evening.

Almost 13 is too young for a boy to babysit, especially one as immature as Mike.

My mother never trusted male babysitters. In her opinion, teenage males are just too hormonal to be trusted around young children.

She barely trusted any babysitters, for that matter – as the youngest, I was frequently babysat by my older siblings, the oldest of whom was seventeen years my senior.

I am the middle child on my Dad’s side of the family, I started baby-sitting my youngest sister when I was eight and she was four. It started out as quick jobs such as my Dad walking up to the corner store to get food that would only take thirty minutes. During that time, we both had to stay outside and play because he didn’t want us to touch anything that required turning on the stove. As I got older, the jobs became longer and we were allowed to stay in the house on the days he had to go to work and I was the only other older sister in the house.

I started babysitting at 13 (I am female). I was TERRIFIED. I had no experience with kids or worse, babies. Luckily, the children were put to bed before I showed up and I just watched TV and hoped the place wouldn’t burn down because I wouldn’t know what I would do in a crisis. I still think those parents were crazy to hire me. I wasn’t ready for that responsibility. And a boy? A 13 year old boy is like hiring a 9 year old to babysit.

I started babysitting when I was in 7th grade, which I started at age 11. The kids were maybe 5 years younger than I was. I was terrible at getting them to bed (well, I thought I was), but I got tons of jobs and did take it seriously. By the time I had a “real job” at 16, I was working with babies in diapers and making upwards of $10 an hour- and this was in the 1980s!

A lot of people are desperate.

Thirteen is a good age. He’ll be willing to play with them. An older sitter might just sit in front of the TV or be on the phone the entire time. Ellie will be there quickly if he calls for help. As soon as Michael’s away from his sister, they’ll both behave better.

I babysat for a next door neighbor that I did not know had a baby. The older two and I had played 3 or 4 board games and read some books when the baby cried to let us know he was not only there but needed something. The older two guided me through diaper changing.

No one’s THAT desperate.

So the implication is that he should wait until his mother hangs up the phone before he resumes tormenting his sister?

I was 10 in the 50s, and began babysitting my younger sister (5 years younger). From that grew a fairly regular pattern of babysitting neighborhood children. Being female, it also became one of my chores (after the youngest was born) to change her, wash diapers (wringer washer—Google it), hang them to dry outside in the summer or in the basement in inclement weather. Although I wasn’t keen on that amount of responsibility, I was well-prepared when my (preemie) son was born.

I got that impression too, it’s OK but not while I’m on the phone!

I started babysitting for a family of 4 when I was 13. The girls were 5 and 3-1/5, the boys were 13 and 2 months respectively. I watched the kids every Friday and Saturday night for $5 a night. When I turned 16, I bought a $150 car with my babysitting money and the parents would then leave for a week while I stayed with the kids. I did this until I was 18. The payment was always $5 a night. Looking back, I was probably a real bargain but I grew to really love that family. I will say that changing the diapers of two little boys for a couple of years was definitely the best form of birth control! As the fourth of five children, I barely remember one of the neighbor boys as a babysitter. Usually it was an older sibling.

Amazing what $5 can do. When I had a mortgage, I paid an extra $5 per month, and paid off the house months earler!

So he should torment her when Elly ISN’T on the phone?

By the time I was 13 I was making decent money babysitting. As the oldest of four kids I had plenty of unpaid practice watching my siblings. Getting paid for it was just icing on the cake. And I was more popular with parents than many of the girl babysitters in the neighborhood, something to do with being more reliable and trustworthy than most. I was in demand after word got around. Not bad for a 13 year old boy. Of course, that was the late 60’s… a very different time.

I never did any babysitting. When we were married, our downstairs neighbors asked us to watch their baby so they could go somewhere. We had no idea how to change her diaper. How we did it, I’ll never know.