I can’t remember what I charged for babysitting back in The Dark Ages when I was a teen but it certainly wasn’t anywhere close to the going rate for babysitters in Denver (thank heavens my kids are teens and childcare is no longer an issue).
When my daughter turned The Age of Responsibility a.k.a. 12ish, we knew it was acceptable to leave her at home alone with her 10-year-old brother. However, he was (and still is) 100 percent more responsible than her and so the ongoing joke was, “Your sister is the babysitter but your little brother is in charge.” Worked like a charm!
This American Life recently had a fabulous series on babysitting and we thought we’d share some of our favorites here.
Yes, There Is A Baby. Myron Jones and his sister Carol Bove explain what happened when they were teenagers, and they ended up babysitting children who didn’t exist.
What Big Teeth You Have. Lots of babysitting is done by family members. Hillary Frank reports on what can happen when a teenaged son is put in charge of his younger brothers. It’s not pretty.
In The Event Of An Emergency, Put Your Sister In An Upright Position. The story of several huge companies that accidentally got put into the babysitting business in a big, big way because of snow on December 26, 1988. Every year on the day after Christmas, divorced kids all over America fly from one parent to the other. In 1988, lots of them got snowed in at O’Hare Airport in Chicago. Susan Burton and her little sister were among them.
Click here to listen and laugh at NPR!
Author: Mile High Mamas
