Why Parents Are Reluctant To Leave Kids With The Babysitter

When I first started babysitting, I made 50cents per hour.  My first job was with an Orthodox Jewish family in Los Angeles.  I was in charge of their two little girls, age 6 months and 3years.  I knew nothing at this point about keeping Kosher, but the mother of the house instructed me on all the do's and don'ts.  I had never changed a diaper in my life, but I soon became and expert, and my time with the children was limited, as they went to bed early.  I spent the rest of the night either studying or talking on the phone.  I did not always follow the Kosher rules, mostly because I forgot.  This family was very frugal and saved plastic bags, waxed paper and aluminum foil.  The kitchen was filled with drawers neatly arranged with plastic and paper that had been used and reused many times.  I found this odd at the time, but now 60 later I still remember her frugality.  She was just an early recycler.

I was told by a friend that when she first started babysitting, she made 25cents per hour, and her parents required her to give half the money to them, and she kept the other half.  What's with that?

Another friend claimed that her friend was babysitting a little three year old girl, and tattooed her butt with a heart.  Another friend came home and found the children tearing up the house, while the babysitter was asleep on the couch.  Finally, another woman told me that one of her friends gave the child a half bottle of sweet wine, and the child was drunk when the parents came home.

I have only one negative babysitting incident to report.  It happened to me when my kids were around seven and three.  We had a live in housekeeper who had only been with us a few weeks, and I could clearly tell she didn't like our dog.  What I came to find out weeks later from my seven year old was that she had been putting pepper on a cloth and rubbing it on the dog's mouth.  I was horrified when I finally found this out.  My son David, who talked a blue streak, was afraid to tell me about it for several weeks.  When I could see that the dog was afraid of the housekeeper, I knew something was up.  He told me, and the housekeeper was gone within the hour.

It's no wonder that parents today are super careful of who cares for their children.  Children don't always want to tell the parents what the babysitter is doing, for a variety of reasons. There are a lot of nuts out there, so many parents would rather stay home than risk a bad experience.