Babysitter Tales

I am test driving a new babysitter. I just don't like the idea of having an unknown teenager over to my house and leaving her with my stress inducing angels as I walk out the door. So I invited one of the local babysitting teens (a young one of 13) over today and let her take care of the kids while I was busy on another floor of the house. She has taken, I was told, a "Babysitting Course" through the community. Oh? Fascinating, but only if I really knew what they covered and what that meant. There were a few things to tell someone who has just come over and I realized as I told her the one million things a person must know to take care of the kids in my house that I should really write some of it down. Then again, I've done that before; where I write down EVERY detail of the desired care of my children while I am out and I am pretty sure the list (epic as it is) did not get read past the first 3 lines. Anyhow, at some point I should figure out a good compromise between ticking off things with my fingers while I spout information versus writing an epic list. So, dear Kasi was WONDERFUL. I was on the third floor of my house, organizing and filing things that have been neglected since Mary was born and they were playing in the basement. My phone system has a really neat feature that allows you to use them as walkie-talkies and page from one phone base to another. This was handy for Kasi as she could just ring me up and ask where the proffered pop was kept. I can also turn on the phones like a baby monitor and listen to the activities at that end - YES, SPY. I don't expect to find out that the neighbor kid is beating my children, but I do want to hear the atmosphere of the playtime. I couldn't hear exactly what was being said, but I do know there was no crying, no yelling, and 2 little girls laughing ecstatically at something the babysitter was saying or doing. That was happiness enough for me. So I virtuously filed and sorted for 2 1/2 hours, coming close to eliminating one large item off of my Spring Cleaning list and it only cost me $15. Kasi, thankfully, will be back tomorrow morning for the follow up 2 1/2 hours and I am happy as punch about it. The sad thing is that I wish she could come over every morning for two hours so that I could get some THINGS done, but, alas, she must attend school. SIGH.