Today I babysat 3 kids plus my own 2 and somehow adding 3 kids to your normal 2 kids makes the 2 act unusual, so it was really like babysitting 5 kids. They got here at 7am and left at about 6:45pm, so I fed them 3 meals and 2 snacks. I also took all 5 of them to the park where they discovered a mud hole and made "muck shoes". I had planned to walk to the park, but found out 2 of them didn't wear or bring shoes, so we drove instead. The park is very close to a duck pond, so we walked there and I had each kid walk into the water and wash off the muck shoes and their equally mucky hands. When we got back home, 4 of the 5 had to have complete clothing changes - my 2, plus the 2 from the other family, who did not bring a change of clothes. One I dressed in an outfit Annalise hasn't grown into yet and the other I made put on an adult sized t-shirt and told her it was a "dress". We had lunch, and took break-time. I'm guessing making muck shoes wore them out because they were all eager to rest, but only Annalise slept. Then I made Jello Cookies (really a good recipe) while they played and after Annalise woke up they watched Toby Tyler (a much cuter movie than I expected) while I mopped, folded laundry, and did dishes. I made dinner and fed them and then their mom took them home. If I can't sleep tonight, I'm blaming the Jello Cookies because I have no other reason not to!
The interesting thing about babysitting is that when I do it these days, it is crystal clear what I had wrong about teaching and why I had trouble keeping my class in order. I let them make too many decisions - or I guess I allowed them try to persuade me to do things their way. These kids marched into my home and of course immediately started testing limits - not bad behavior, but seeing what I would give them - snacks, TV shows I know they usually don't get to watch, etc. A few years ago, there wasn't much structure in our house, but now there's a full blow schedule and routine, so when they tried to step out of it, I immediately pulled them back in. After a time or two, they just submitted. The main problem I had was having 5 kids pulling out toys at once all over the house, if I babysat them all the time or had 5 kids of my own, this is an issue I would definitely address, and since I'm close to having 3 of my own, I need to find a good way to address it now! Our current routine at least confines the toy explosions to one part of the house, but I couldn't confine 5 kids and myself anywhere in our house! ...except when I fed them ;)
That made me tired just reading it! You are brave. That is a really long time to entertain someone else's kids!
ReplyDeleteOur neighbor just started a date "night" (3pm-8pm) once a month for 4 families in our neighborhood. One Saturday each month one of the families watches the other 3 families' kids. There are 10 kids - ages 9 months - 8yrs! It won't be so bad in the summer when we can send them outside, but I'm a little anxious about what we'll do before then!
Oh I didn't bother to entertain them! They entertained themselves! Thursday afternoon is our movie afternoon, when the kids keep their feet off of the floor so I can mop it! Other than going to the park, I didn't do much different than a regular day...well that and the Jello Cookies.
ReplyDeleteI'm not sure what I'd do with 10 kids! That's a pretty broad spread of ages for any formal activites. In your house I'd probably send the bigs to the basement and keep the under 2s in sight. Here is a funny trick I learned - when I want a big group of kids to listen to me, I tell them all to put their finger on their nose, then I can see right away who isn't listening and call them out. Of course, when I did that today, Caleb was the one who didn't put his finger on his nose!
Leah, you are tha bomb! It sounds like you managed really well, which says a lot for your established schedule and house rules. I think you will ease into having three kids pretty easily.
ReplyDeleteWe kept a family of 5 boys one morning. I thought, this will be easy, I'll just send them outside. Unlike my kids, they got tired of being outside after about 10 minutes!! I think I would just make them stay outside next time. :)
5 brothers! Wow!!!! I can only begin to imagine what kind of mischief they get into!
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