Serial Caller

My little sister has a little girl that she likes to babysit.  My sister decided that we should take her out to see a movie. 
As we were driving there, my sister complained about how the parents had been bugging her about when they were going.  "I'm doing them a favor," she said.  "Don't give me a hard time about it." 
I'm surprised to hear this from her, since she usually says that she likes these people.
At the theater we ran into problems.  The parents informed us that this little girl should have lemonade, which meant that the theater didn't have any.  So we were forced to go with fruit punch.  The first thing that I thought was that she was going to spill on herself. 
It took her one sip. 
The little girl was mostly well-behaved.  She sat up a lot during the movie, she squirmed in her seat, but mostly was fine.
We took her home.  Her parents weren't there yet.  "Somehow, I knew that was going to happen," my sister said.  I had been thinking the same thing.  I often feel like these people are taking advantage of us.  We're always doing them favors and they're always treating us in shaky ways in return.
The other thing that surprised me was that they had gone to a shooting range.  For people who apparently can't afford to pay a babysitter, they have tons of money for impractical cars, a guitar and bullets.  I don't mind guns, but I don't trust these people so I don't want them to have a gun.
As we drove home, my sister told me about her friend Anna.  Anna's car broke down, so they sent it to the patriarch, and she made cookies and took the little girl to the zoo for the day. 
My sister complained about how often the matriarch calls my Mom.  It's excessive.  She's also what I would call a serial caller, which is someone who calls and calls and calls, all without stopping much inbetween individual calls.  It's a really irritating habit, especially if it's not an emergency.  (If it's an emergency, than it's acceptable.  Otherwise, stop.  If someone's not picking up, they probably have a legitimate reason or they aren't near the phone to know you're calling anyway.) 

Anger and Artwork

Another day of babysitting.
This time, the little girl got really upset when her Mom decided to leave.  I've babysat for this family before, and yesterday she was fine, so I don't know what got her so upset, but she went ballistic in that impotent way that most children get.  I found myself thinking about the things my Mom would say to me when I was this way as a child: "I'll give you something to cry about."  (Or my Grandma: "I hit you so hard, your teeth go marching out of your mouth!") 
I'm a big fan of using psychology to deal with children.  I don't know much, but I've been consulting with Josie, and will continue to do so as this job continues as how best to deal with children.  My sense right now is that you shouldn't reward any bad behavior with any kind of attention, positive or negative.  So, the little girl sat in front of the door, screaming and crying for her Mom, and I let her.  I sat nearby reading a book, on the off chance that she did something destructive or ran out the door into the street so that I'd be close at hand. 
It was tough to concentrate on my book, but I managed through three chapters sitting there.  One of their pet cats came by and meowed at me.  She, on the other hand, would eventually get tired and just lay there, in front of the door.  Then she'd get enough energy back and start hollering again. 
I was glad that her Grandma, also in the house, is deaf.  Lucky thing.  It takes me a few minutes to get use to the screaming before I tune it out. 
The last time she had one of these fits in front of me, last year, she ran into her room and screamed in the same way, with the screaming becoming shorter and with longer gaps of silence in between.  She screamed herself so badly that when I finally went in there to check on her, she had fallen asleep.  I was hoping this would happen this time, though I was wary of her sleeping in front of the door.  This little girl doesn't have regularly scheduled naps, but I feel like she should.  I suspect her parents are just not around enough to enforce them, and babysitters like myself probably don't like to start fights. 
After reading three chapters, I moved to the couch.  She could see me sitting there watching her, so maybe making her think I was even less interested would help.  I read through a whole another chapter and I was starting a fifth when she finally got up, went to her room, and brought out a toy, and we started playing.  Like nothing was wrong. 
That took about forty-five minutes.
We played with this dress up doll that was basically an updated version of paper dolls, only the clothes and doll had magnets so they'd stick better.  Then we played with her cats, which I like.  I get the feeling I am already their buddy because they follow me into rooms and come up to me looking to be petted.  The little girl got out one of those toys that is just a strip of cloth with a bell on the end.  She would run from room to room and the cats would chase her. 
One of the things the Mom left me to do with her was to help her set up a toy that required some artistic patience.  She asked me if was arty.  I just told her no, instead of the longer answer of "I'm creative.  No one who makes arty would dare say they were arty.  It's a demonized word by anyone who does it past eleven."  Also, I feel like it's not my job to be your kid's art teacher. 

Coloring and Cooking

I had a babysitting gig today. 
I was just watching one little girl, and I played with her the entire time.  She had this set of blocks that were meant to be stacked on top of each other to make various towers.  She mostly played with that and I watched.  She's a big fan of me watching her play with things, either that or making up games that are designed to make her win.  It's obviously boring from my point of view.  I found myself fantasizing about going home and reading this article I was working on last night.
We also went round to one of her friend's house, where they were painting rocks.  She painted a rock for herself (making it green and blue) and her other friends had made various rocks, one clearly painted with a butterfly on top. 
We also played with her brother's train set.  (Same basic deal.  Watch her make the trains go or let her boss me around.)  We were also able to build some elaborate tracks for the trains to navigate on. 
One of my favorite things to do when babysitting is coloring because it keeps kids in their seats (less likely to hurt themselves) and they're actually making something.  Coloring in actual coloring books is sort of exotic to me, because when I was a kid I never used them.  I knew what they were, I saw other kids like them.  But the coloring books never had pictures of my house or my friends in outfits I designed for them or anything like that, and I always preferred blank paper to coloring books.  Now, of course, there's something nicely mindless about coloring books.  I just sat there and colored pictures of rabbits and Hello Kitty and other things.  She started off coloring and then made some pictures of her own, mostly focusing on making hearts.  She made me a picture, which consisted of my name, the word love and what was explained to me as a cupcake.  
Making lunch was the least fun part.  I told her that she could go play, but she wanted to hang around the kitchen.  Because I was making her mac and cheese, this made me a little wary, because I would rather she be out in the living room playing with her dolls than be around boiling water.  One of the many annoying things I notice about babysitting is that kids basically expect you to do anything you want the moment they say it.  I'm certain I was a pain in the ass to my Mom, but I also remember being told no a lot.  Or something like "I can't just wave my magic wand and make that happen," in answer to something physically impossible. 
Their stove was also really slow at boiling things, which just sort of added to the problem, because she kept asking when it was going to be.  I told her that she was welcome to go play with her toys in the meantime, but no, she wanted to sit there and watch me.  Finally, the water started boiling after ten minutes, and once I got it to boil, making the rest of the mac and cheese wasn't too hard.  I'm not much of a cook, and I don't make food often (my Dad insists on making me everything at home.  Every time I enter the kitchen, he comes in behind me and asks me four times each if I want something.  No, I just want to look through the mail.) and I'm always wary of using equipment that I'm unfamiliar with.
The Dad set out the mac and cheese, but not the pots or pans or even a microwavable bowl.  Their kitchen is a mess and sort of hard to navigate, since things are placed in cupboards that would be better in a different cupboard right next to them.  Plus, very few of their bowls were labeled, and the ones that were indicated that they weren't to be put in the microwave. 

Day Off

My sister ended up going today to babysit my Grandma. 
My Mom yesterday said that she didn't want me to get burned out so fast because we still had a long way to go with her.  I guess I don't want to get burned out either, but I have a sneaking suspicion that's not going to happen anything soon. 
One of the good things about MSU is that I've been trained to go on maximum power, as it were, for months at a time.  Months.  This whole last school year was hell in a lot of ways, but looking back on it and how miserable I was, I think I handled it with grace.  Barely anyone knew about my problems, and no one person knew about all of it.  Which was for the best, since I can't expect people to just accept a drama dump. 
Having the day off was nice.  I got to sleep in, and that always makes me cheerful.  

La Vida Loca

Just spoke to my Mom.  She wants me to babysit my Grandma tomorrow and maybe Friday.  I said I'd do it. 
Although none of this is my Grandma's or Mom's fault, I'm feeling a little bitter about it today.  Seems like all my peers get to have fun and I'm stuck being responsible and adult.  Uh-huh, that's me, living la vida loca. 
And then I feel guilty about thinking that, because my Grandma really does need people around these days to make sure she eats, takes her medicine, etc.  And it really isn't that hard to watch her.
I'm probably going to have to do more of this as the summer goes on, because my sister is taking at least two classes this summer and is going to be too busy to help out much.
Part of me wishes it was a few summers back, when I was off, having adventures. 

The Puzzle Lady

Went to visit my Grandma today to babysit. My Mom has been spending all her free time with her, which means that I'm on duty when my Mom is working.
My Grandma is often referred to at her nursing home as "The Puzzle Lady." Like most nursing homes, there is a puzzle always sitting out on a particular table. My Grandma likes to sit there and, in addition to putting the puzzle together, people watch.
My Grandma's people watching is one of the many ways that I find myself thinking about how similiar the two of us are. I love people watching. Never feel bad about leaving me alone in a public place with lots of people, like say, the caf at school. I like watching people. They're fascinating.
So, for part of today, my Grandma, sister and I worked on the puzzle. Right now, it's a picture of eggs elaborately decorated. Possibly they are suppose to be those fancy Russian eggs that the Romanovs were into as serfs starved. Anyway, I had a decent puzzle day. I put together a fair amount of pieces. Sweet.
There's really not much to do when hanging with my Grandma, but I try to keep myself entertained. I played some solitare. Read a little. Texted with my friends Philip and Ashley. Talked to my Uncle on the phone. Watched Sabrina the Teenage Witch. Laid down for a little. Like I said, not much to do.
In a little while, I'm going to walk my Grandma down to dinner. I was hoping to have an exciting Friday night planned, but it looks like I've got to be an adult and get some stuff together for a possible job. Bah.