Babysitting
Babysitting
By Allan Olson
Recently I had the privilege of “babysitting” my three youngest children all by myself. I use this term even though my wife informs me that they are my children, so it’s not babysitting. In addition to that, all of my children declare that they are no longer babies. They were babies a long time ago.
Regardless, I’m the dad, and I needed to watch my kids.
Wake-up time
My plan was to sleep in; I wasn’t going in to work and I had hoped – foolishly, perhaps – that maybe, just maybe, I could sleep past 6:30 a.m. Well, I was wrong. They didn’t let me sleep in. I even tried the old “turn the television on with cartoons in my room” trick in an effort to catch a few more winks. Well, that didn’t work so well, either. If they weren’t fighting, or playing (on me, on the bed), they were crowding me out of my king bed and trying to hog the blankets.
Crazy, I thought. Three small kids can take up enough room to make me leave my bed. And all this time they kept talking about food and how they were hungry.
Feeding
Okay, perhaps it is just my kids (I’m certain it isn’t, but perhaps), but sometimes, I wonder if all they want to do is eat?
I finally crawled out of bed, no longer able to avoid filling their bottomless pits any longer.
I went in search of food for the children. I gave them a choice hot cereal or cold cereal. The verdict was unanimous – they wanted hot cereal. A problem arose when I discovered that I might be pushing my luck with this, as the box was nearly empty. I measured and discovered that it was going to be close. Thankfully, I had just enough and breakfast was complete.
A short time later, Abigail was looking for more food. After a bowl of cereal and two pieces of toast, how could someone so small be hungry already? I delayed the whole snack process, until they found the raisins and started fending for themselves. I know when I’m defeated, so I decided to be brave and fix them grilled cheese sandwiches for lunch. I even made sure they got fruit with their meal!
Nap Time
Another meal done and cleaned-up. It’s nap time.
After the usual delay tactics by them, they were in bed. In honesty, I don’t think any of them really napped. And so, once again, I didn’t get a nap either.
Clean-up
Since I played Mr. Nice guy all day, I thought it was time to “lay down the law.” I informed all three of them that the girls’ room needed to be cleaned; the boys’ room was done the night prior by them.
In the meantime, I went upstairs to do dishes before mom came home.
Mom called, informed me that she was going to be working a little later than planned, and then she and Nikolai were going to a movie.
“I have to feed them and watch them all evening, too?” I complained.
Needless to say, she had little or no sympathy for me. (Cue the tiny violin.)
I completed the dishes and was sitting at the table on my computer when Abigail approached.
“Aren’t you going to help clean my room, because you’re just sitting around," she said.
I told her that if they didn’t get that room cleaned, they wouldn’t be enjoying supper.
After a few trips downstairs to point out the many items they missed after they had assured me it was all cleaned up, we finally enjoyed a nice pizza. It was simple to make and resulted in virtually no more dishes to watch.
Days End
The evening wound down with all three of us – the girls in my lap and Marcus on the couch – watching a movie until bedtime.
In all, it wasn’t a bad day, entertaining and frustrating all at the same time. As long as my wife doesn’t plan these “daddy babysitting,” days too often, I think I can handle it. (Just don’t tell her that.) ;-)
By Allan Olson
Recently I had the privilege of “babysitting” my three youngest children all by myself. I use this term even though my wife informs me that they are my children, so it’s not babysitting. In addition to that, all of my children declare that they are no longer babies. They were babies a long time ago.
Regardless, I’m the dad, and I needed to watch my kids.
Wake-up time
My plan was to sleep in; I wasn’t going in to work and I had hoped – foolishly, perhaps – that maybe, just maybe, I could sleep past 6:30 a.m. Well, I was wrong. They didn’t let me sleep in. I even tried the old “turn the television on with cartoons in my room” trick in an effort to catch a few more winks. Well, that didn’t work so well, either. If they weren’t fighting, or playing (on me, on the bed), they were crowding me out of my king bed and trying to hog the blankets.
Crazy, I thought. Three small kids can take up enough room to make me leave my bed. And all this time they kept talking about food and how they were hungry.
Feeding
Okay, perhaps it is just my kids (I’m certain it isn’t, but perhaps), but sometimes, I wonder if all they want to do is eat?
I finally crawled out of bed, no longer able to avoid filling their bottomless pits any longer.
I went in search of food for the children. I gave them a choice hot cereal or cold cereal. The verdict was unanimous – they wanted hot cereal. A problem arose when I discovered that I might be pushing my luck with this, as the box was nearly empty. I measured and discovered that it was going to be close. Thankfully, I had just enough and breakfast was complete.
A short time later, Abigail was looking for more food. After a bowl of cereal and two pieces of toast, how could someone so small be hungry already? I delayed the whole snack process, until they found the raisins and started fending for themselves. I know when I’m defeated, so I decided to be brave and fix them grilled cheese sandwiches for lunch. I even made sure they got fruit with their meal!
Nap Time
Another meal done and cleaned-up. It’s nap time.
After the usual delay tactics by them, they were in bed. In honesty, I don’t think any of them really napped. And so, once again, I didn’t get a nap either.
Clean-up
Since I played Mr. Nice guy all day, I thought it was time to “lay down the law.” I informed all three of them that the girls’ room needed to be cleaned; the boys’ room was done the night prior by them.
In the meantime, I went upstairs to do dishes before mom came home.
Mom called, informed me that she was going to be working a little later than planned, and then she and Nikolai were going to a movie.
“I have to feed them and watch them all evening, too?” I complained.
Needless to say, she had little or no sympathy for me. (Cue the tiny violin.)
I completed the dishes and was sitting at the table on my computer when Abigail approached.
“Aren’t you going to help clean my room, because you’re just sitting around," she said.
I told her that if they didn’t get that room cleaned, they wouldn’t be enjoying supper.
After a few trips downstairs to point out the many items they missed after they had assured me it was all cleaned up, we finally enjoyed a nice pizza. It was simple to make and resulted in virtually no more dishes to watch.
Days End
The evening wound down with all three of us – the girls in my lap and Marcus on the couch – watching a movie until bedtime.
In all, it wasn’t a bad day, entertaining and frustrating all at the same time. As long as my wife doesn’t plan these “daddy babysitting,” days too often, I think I can handle it. (Just don’t tell her that.) ;-)
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