I find bed time the hardest part of babysitting. When it comes to putting kids to sleep time just flies by so fast. I'm always afraid that the parents are going to be upset if they hear their kid didn't fall asleep till much after their bed time.
There's always those last minute things kids think of to get out of going to bed, whether its a drink, home work, a game, bathroom or a story. It just never ends. I learned you have to be tough and keep to the rules so the kids won't take advantage, but its hard. I figure I'll read them one story to get them to come to their room, but that never makes them happy they always want more.
I keep the kids company so they won't come out of their room, I lay down on the floor and make believe I'm going to sleep. Sometimes it works and the kids become quiet and fall asleep, and then sometimes they just keep on talking and calling me, so I answer them and tell them they have to go to sleep...
One time when I was putting a 3 year old to sleep, she had been my camper that summer so she was attached to me, so I laid down in the bed with her, I must have been really tired, cause I actually fell asleep! I woke up just in time, the parents came in and said they tried calling, I said I didn't hear anyone calling, I didn't say I fell asleep.
B"H that never happened again, I lay down on the floor so its not comfortable for me to sleep. Once they fall asleep, I'm afraid to wake them, so I move slowly to get up and I carefully go out of the room not to make any noise. Then comes the boring part of waiting till the parents come home.
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as long as they're the last kid to bed, I don't think its bad if you fall asleep. (I think I'd be rather amused comming in and not hearing a sound (although worried for a bit) comming in and looking through the rooms at the kids asleep and then finding the baby sitter sleeping with one of them.
ReplyDeleteThe lady who used to live next door to us- when ever she would put the kids to bed, she slept so little that she'd fall asleep before they did, and end up missing like half the shabbos meal on accident, or other things.
and I know one time I was putting her little girl to bed (in my bed, it was moving day) I just read her a story, and she was fighting it and fighting it, so finaly I put my head down with her (sitting on the floor, but my upper body and head on the edge of the bed so that it looked like I was going to sleep) and she just drifted off to sleep.
its really beautifull watching that.
and one other time she asked her mommy to have me put her to bed.
they're so cute like that.
(although you never know, I'm a marshmellow and she may have thought she could dupe me in to letting her stay up.)
and another time (shortly after the move) she refused to take a nap, but she then said "oni's!" (yoni's bed) and so her mommy said she couldn't but I could put her down for a nap, to which she acquiesced.
but then there was the time I was putting a 1 year old down, and she just said "kach!" "kach!" (take) and I was so broken hearted at her cries for help that I just picked her right up.
lol, that's reassuring, I'm just not sure how many parents wouldn't mind to see the babysitter sleeping. Although one keeps offering me to watch tv while their sleeping, but I always decline.
ReplyDeleteyea, I've done that too where I put my head on their bed while in the sitting position.
yea, its nice to look at kids sleeping faces, their so innocent and cute.
(I see you use the word dupe a lot, I've never heard that word before, but from the context I'm guessing it means to trick)
Its nice when kids like you. (I've had kids call me Mommy by mistake)
The only time I babysit at places where I knew Id have to put hte kids to bed, it was always for people I already knew very well. So I knew that if I fell asleep accidently with the kid, they really wouldnt care. So I cannot relate to your fear of being caught asleep.
ReplyDeleteBut I can relate to the kids trying to get out of going to bed. The last time I babysat, the kid really really didnt want to go to bed. I was really upset. The kid was 5, and his 9 yr old brother tried to be all grown up and help me get him into bed, by telling him it was alright if he fell asleep on mommy's bed.
You see, no matter how close you are to the family, the bedroom is still always off limits unless you are family. So this made me really nervous. B"H the mommy called me, and she gave me permission to go to her rooom and/or let him watch TV in bed before he fell asleep.
His 9 yr old bro posed a problem later that night, but wasn't so bad. He gave in and realized he was already too old to sucker me into allowing the whole "I want a drink" thing...
Even if I know the people I'm babysitting by, I would feel irresponsible for falling asleep there. I mean the latest I babysit till is between 11 and 12 which isn't really that late.
ReplyDeleteYea, thats another issue, the parents bedroom, every family is different in that regard. One person said when the one year old cries I should take him out of his crib, bring him to the parents room and lay him down in the middle of the bed and he'll fall back asleep, I've done that a few times and it worked. (Except for the part where I was afraid he would roll over, and I would watch him, and when he came close to the edge of the bed I would bring him back to the middle and then he would wake up). Then a different person doesn't care at all what the parents bedroom looks like, the crib was in that room, and when I went up to get the baby when she woke up from her nap, the room was a mess, I saw unmentionable stuff lying on the floor...I think there's only one family that I've never been in the parents bedroom, they keep the doors locked with a key and they told me not to go in, and I had no need to go in, so I haven't.
That reminds me I saw a really nice house in lakewood that I was one time staying at for a family simcha, and I saw the doors of the parents bedroom and my goodness they were so fancy, and it had a key lock and a combination lock, I've never seen a combination lock on a parents bedroom and I thought it was funny.