Summer Job Files: Sitting on Babies

In honor of the summer, each week we take turns to recount a summer job we had back in the day. [Editor's Note: Back in the day refers to when we were in school...sigh...college].

Two weeks ago, I told you all about my summer of overachievement. The summer when I worked not one, not two, but three jobs to support my drinking career in college. So in addition to being a camp counselor, hostessing at a restaurant, I also baby-sat.

The great thing about being a counselor was not only the camaraderie of hanging out with other counselors or being able to be outside all day, but also that you got to meet a lot of kids. These kids who are with you day after day begin to feel attached and then all of a sudden their parents are asking you to baby-sit. I got a lot of sweet, high-paying baby-sitting gigs out of my camp counselor days.

One of my favorite kids to baby-sit was by far a six-year old boy named Grant. Since the camp that I worked for (and Grant attended) only lasted until the first week of August, the two of us both had time to kill until we both went back to school. Grant's mother didn't work, but hired me anyway because Grant "loved" me and because she wanted "alone time" during the day to work out with her trainer, go shopping, etc. so for a good portion of August I baby-sat Grant while his brother attended a circus camp (and no, I'm not joking - I once had to pick him up and they were getting clown lessons...so creepy).

And it was great for the most part. Grant's mother liked to keep him out of the house (probably so he could destroy less things), so she would often pile $100 into my open palms and tell me to take Grant to a movie (the first and last time I saw Spy Kids), go mini-golfing, or go paint pottery. We were hardly ever in his house.

I'm sure there as an ulterior motive to this, and later in the summer I think I figured out why. See, when Grant, who was quite rotund, was out of the house he had less opportunities to steal snacks from the cupboard. The only reason they even had fattening food like Oreos or pizza in the house was because Grant's older brother was stick thin and unlike Grant he barely ate at all. One night when I was asked to baby-sit, Grant found the hidden cupboard of snack foods in the house which I was explicitly told not to let him eat.

We had been watching a movie on TV and he had announced that he was going to the bathroom. 10 minutes pass and I realize I'm watching this children's movie all by my lonesome, so I go to look for Grant and find him in the kitchen on top of a counter smashing Oreos into his mouth like it's the end of the world. He spotted me and immediately booked it, running into the closest bathroom and locking himself inside with a sleeve full of Oreos and refused to come out until he had eaten every last one.

Grant wasn't my only baby-sitting escapade that summer - I also had the honor of baby-sitting for a little girl named Gabrielle, who was probably the most annoying little girl I had ever met. But money won me over and I ended up using my days off from Grant to baby-sit for Gabrielle. Since she wasn't allowed to watch TV (which is seriously the worst thing ever for baby-sitters - seriously, moms let them watch TV with us!), I would suggest we go for drives...and then I would do errands. Wow, I just realized how horrible this makes me sound. But in my defense, usually we'd end up at Target or CVS and we'd play in the toy aisle or we'd pick out outfits that we thought looked cute on her. Does that make me sound any less horrific?

My baby-sitting adventures were interesting that summer - I think I ended up baby-sitting for at least 4 families that I met through camp. Overall, it was a great way to make some extra cash, and I continued to baby-sit for multiple families while in college.