Sunday, April 13, 2008

Travelling Babysitter

Today I went to buy new Rollerblades, I was going to take the bus to get there, but my father offered to give me a ride there and back. So after I got my Rollerblades I was walking down the street to go to our car when I see this girl with 2 kids waiting by a city bus stop. She asked me which bus goes to a certain neighborhood. I wasn't sure, so I asked my father, he said she would have to take 2 buses. So he then offered to bring her where she needed to go. Or at least so she will only have to take one bus.

So my father asked the girl where she was going, and she said to a pizza shop. So we dropped her off at the pizza shop. But meanwhile, before we got there the girl didn't seem to know where she was going or how she was getting anywhere. I asked her where she was from and she said Israel. So I asked if the 2 kids with her were her cousins and she said no, that she was their babysitter. She said the kids were going to their grandparents for Pesach, so she came on the plane to bring them here and she was going back to Israel before Pesach.

I've never heard of such a thing before, where a babysitter flies with kids to a foreign country and then entertains them there for a week. I can imagine it would be hard for her entertaining 2 kids in a country she's not familiar with. Although she did say she came here every summer for camp. But that's not in the same neighborhood. One of the kids asked if they were going to the zoo tomorrow. She answered that they only have zoo's in Israel, that they don't have zoo's in America. So she obviously didn't know much about this area and must have a lot of self confidence to take upon such a job. They had great English though, which was a good thing.

But it was interesting that when we were in the car I felt like I could relate to her, a fellow babysitter. She was worried the kids were making too much noise, so she kept telling them to be quiet and of course they didn't listen. But of course we didn't mind that they were talking. But it was funny how kids are the same all over. The kids felt very comfortable and were saying silly names and silly sounds and then laughing at it. The kids I babysit do the same thing, they would make up words and then laugh at how funny it sounds.

5 comments:

  1. That's a very cool story. The parents must have had a lot of trust in the babysitter to allow her to take their children to America. And in this case you could probably coin a new term, "Babytransporter"

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  2. I guess I assume you are dressed in typical haredi manner so I can't quite visualize the rollerblades. Is that a common mode of transportation or do you go to a private skate park?

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  3. I'm not sure what charedi means or if I'm part of it. But I Rollerblade for fun, I go to a park or anywhere. Now that the weather is getting nice and its spring I can start again.

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  4. kids will be kids... no matter what country they're from....i've seen puerto ricans, israelis, little frenchies, and even tiny Asian kids misbehave..they all thing they're being so original, but it's the same world over

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  5. Or maybe she just didn't want to have to take them to a zoo. Of course, someday those kids will know their babysitter lied to them.

    Parents must be mad rich though.

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