Shira My Crazy Babysitting Adventure! “Ding Dong” I rang the doorbell anxiously waiting for Alexis to run up to the front door and greet me like usual. It was about my fifth time babysitting for Alexis, a seven-year-old girl. Alexis ran up to the door and peeked though the white curtains on the window by the front door. I was just expecting a regular babysitting experience, make dinner, help finish up homework, bath time and then put her to bed. There was no way that I could prepare myself for the crazy adventure I was about to depart on, or for the life lessons that I would learn just from these next five hours of babysitting. “Hi, Alexis let me in” I greeted Alexis’s Dad. “Hi! Welcome! Thanks so much for coming on such short notice. Alexis wants to make soup for dinner, and I taught her how so she should be able to handle that. She needs to finish up her math homework and then it needs to be checked over for errors. At 7:30 she needs to take a bath and be in bed by 8:00 sharp. Oh yes, and no desert! She has sugar problems.” I nodded and tried to remember everything that her Dad had just told me. A few minutes later her Dad left, leaving me in charge. I finally convinced Alexis to work on her math homework so I could do my own homework until dinnertime. Little did I know that no homework would actually get done by either one of us the whole night. “Jasby! Come here little puppy!” Alexis would call out to her dog while she was supposed to be doing homework. “Alexis, not now.” I tried to keep her on task. “Look at her! She needs a walk!” Alexis tried to convince me that Jasby was in need of a walk, but I wasn’t falling for it. “Your dad just walked her, she will be fine” I comforted Alexis. After a while of trying to do homework, I realized that it was 6:30, a good time to make dinner. Jasby scampered up the stairs after Alexis, eager to help cook. “I know exactly how to make soup! Just sit down and enjoy the show!” Alexis guided me toward a chair and I sat down. Alexis took out a pot and filled it about a quarter with water. Everything looked like it was
going well, until she took out the milk and started pouring it into the soup. “Umm, Alexis? What are you doing?” I asked her. “I’m making soup! Don’t worry, my Dad taught me how” I let it go and watched her cook. I decided that I would just keep my mouth shut, and she would learn her lesson when the soup turned out terrible. She poured in apple juice, tomato sauce, and orange soda. After thinking about it, it was actually pretty funny how she thought that she was making soup. I laughed to myself and decided to get my homework and do it in the kitchen while she made the soup. When I came back, the kitchen smelled like an interesting and fruity mix. “Shira, I have to go get some chives from our garden.” Alexis grabbed some scissors and ran outside into the yard. A few minutes later she reappeared in the kitchen with a big handful of some green straw like stuff, and placed it down on the counter. She got out a big knife, and I warned her to be very careful, and offered to help. “No. My Dad taught me how to cut carefully.” She protested, so I sat back down. She started vigorously chopping the chives until they were little tiny green things. She scooped them up and put them in the soup. Ten minutes and many ingredients later, Alexis told me that the soup was done, and now it just had to sit on the hot stove for a few more minutes to continue cooking. We went into the living room and started talking. “BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP!!!!!!!” A loud beeping noise filled the room along with the smell of smoke. I panicked and ran into the kitchen. The soup was boiling over! I grabbed the pot off the stove and threw it into the sink. “My soup!!” Alexis cried. I tried to get her out of the kitchen so I could clean up. After the kitchen was spotless, I decided that we would just have grilled cheese. “Ooh! Let me make the grilled cheese! My Dad taught…”
“NO!” I cut Alexis off before she could even try to tell me that she knew how to make grilled cheese too. I made the grilled cheese and we ate it in peace. By now it was already 7:30 time for Alexis’s bath. I sent her upstairs and told her that I would be in the living room if she needed me. I could finally relax! I was so happy that I didn’t have to worry about Alexis messing anything else up. If only I knew that Alexis was easily distracted, and didn’t intend on getting in the full bath tub anytime soon… “Wooooshhhhh” I heard the faint sound of water rushing. I went upstairs to check on Alexis. I knocked on her door and called her name. “Yes?” Alexis replied, but it wasn’t coming from inside her room. I was getting frustrated. I walked down the hall and into her parent’s room, where she was sitting on the floor playing with Jasby. “Alexis! What about your bath? Its already almost 8:00!” She got up and she went back into her room, and I went back downstairs. “Shira!!!!!!” I heard Alexis call me and I raced up the stairs afraid of what I would find. I pushed open her bedroom door and I walked into her bathroom. Water was rushing out of the tub, all over her bathroom floor. I told her to get lots of towels as I quickly turned the faucet off. She had left the tub running the whole time that she had been in her parent’s room! When she returned with the towels we cleaned it up, and she went to bed without taking a bath. An hour later, her Dad came home and I had never been so happy to see anyone in my whole life. I was relieved that I could finally go home and go to sleep. Even though this night had been very stressful, I learned many skills that would help me in the future. I learned that I should never let a child run their own bath, or to let them cook if you aren’t sure that they really know how. I also learned that some things may seem frustrating at the time, but really they are just a chance to learn new things.