Alright kids, it’s been like 45 whole minutes since your moms left and Aunt Steph needs a break.
One Saturday, both of my sisters asked me to babysit their kids. My oldest sister has four girls, and my other sister has a boy and a girl. That’s six kids, which meant I was largely outnumbered to start with. Don’t get me wrong, I love all of my nieces and nephew and I enjoy spending time with them…..one at a time. Six is a bit much to handle. The kids were driving me bazerk with all of the running around and yelling they were doing and I new I couldn’t take much more of it. So I sent them outside to play, telling them, “Alright kids, it’s been like 45 whole minutes since your moms left and Aunt Steph needs a break. So go play in the backyard for a little while and don’t come back in until I come get you. You might want to take a Kool-aid with you because you’re probably going to be out there for awhile and it’s pretty hot out today.” As soon as the house was quiet, I laid on the couch and turned on the TV. I don’t remember what show I was watching, but it must have been really good because I totally forgot I was baby-sitting six kids, until one of my older nieces started knocking on the window to see if they could come back in. I jumped up and ran to the door to let them in. They were all exhausted from playing out side for so long that all they wanted to do was sit in the living room and watch TV, which was completely fine with me. My sisters arrived a little while later and told me how impressed they were they the kids were being so calm and well-behaved for me. I just smiled and quickly made my exit before the kids had the chance to tell them what really happened. I’m not sure what they told them, but I have never been asked to babysit all six kids at one time since then, so apparently I did something right.
Stephanie Walters 