It came to my attention recently that I have never had a babysitter.
That is, a babysitter in a traditional sense – a teenager/20s-something who is not really related to me. Over Halloween weekend, Catherine was taking care of 3 kids whose parents were out of town. We were annoyed at this, since it meant Cath had to take care of kids instead of going out with us, and it prompted my comment of “Why couldn’t they stay with their grandparents?!”
Then I realised not every kid has local grandparents… when I was a kid, if I need to stay somewhere, I stayed with either set of my grandparents, one of my aunts and uncles, or with Ash and her parents. There was never a babysitter.
I asked mom about this, and she said that ONCE – just once – I had a babysitter. It was when were in Daytona beach when I was about 5 or 6, and we had gone with a set of my parents’ friends whose son was the same age as me. They got a babysitter to stay with us while they went out one night, but said they were so worried they came back after only 20 minutes and took us with them.
My only memory of this is that we got Happy Meals before the parents left and the babysitter convinced me to try the sweet and sour sauce with my chicken nuggets and I’d never had it before.
There was no point to this post.