Adventures in Babysitting
Sweety (who is guestposting at Casey's) shared her misadventures in babysitting. That got me thinking to my worst babysitting experience.
I was a junior in high school and this really rich family in town (they owned a huge house on the beach) that I had only ever sat for once or twice called me. Well, the wife called me. She was really desperate for a sitter, and even though it was a school night and my dad generally didn't allow me to sit on school nights, I agreed.
When he dropped me off (OK, I didn't have a car. Or even a license. I TOLD you I was a big loser in high school), I got the rest of the story. Her husband was out of town and she was going out for a wild girls night out. Oh yeah, and I needed to keep her friend's kids, too. But they promised to pay me DOUBLE. It was 1983 and I think the going rate was $5 an hour, so double was good! And they also promised to be home by midnight. School night and all.
The kids went to bed at a decent hour - they were all under the age of, I don't know, 5. I tried to stay up but it got late and I got tired. I dozed off & on. It grew later. And later. Way passed midnight. I got worried. I didn't know what to do so I called - get this - my boyfriend because my dad would be asleep. (I'm not sure what, exactly, I thought my boyfriend's family was doing at 2 a.m. on a week night.) He talked me into calling my dad. Dad got up, came back over to the house and waited while I slept (so as to hopefully make class the next morning).
The drunken bitches finally showed up at 5:30 in the morning! They'd been - I don't know - arrested or something. My dad was furious. She scribbled out a check for me for $50 (which, BTW, was no where near the "double" they'd promised to pay me, since I'd just spent more than 10 hours there).
Ahh, the joys of teenage employment. At least I never had any babysitting dads try to grope my tits or anything. Oh, that's right...I didn't have tits in high school.
