The Good Babysitter

The other day there were some 15 and 16 year old guys outside in front of my house jumping on a huge tree branch that had fallen down. I heard thumping from inside my house so I went to the window to check out what’s happening. I watched them for a little bit, but then I started to get nervous that one of them will fall and get hurt. So I opened the front door, and stood there for a little to see if they will stop. After seeing them continue, I told them “I don’t think you should do that, you could get hurt”. I was so surprised when they all actually stopped and walked away without looking back or giving one response. Then a family member says to me “Babysitter, you are good, very very good, you’re like a grandmother already”. Then I started thinking, perhaps it was grandmotherly of me to go out and tell them to stop, I mean they are big kids already and they were having fun. But still, the babysitter instinct in me was looking out for the safety.

In shul by Simchas Torah it started off very cold at night, so a woman asked that I close the window. Since the window was by my seat, I closed it. But then later on more people had come in and it started getting warmer. So one mother says to me, “Is it just me or is it warm in here?”. So I told her that more people are coming in so perhaps it got warmer, so I could open the window a bit. So I reached out my hand in back of me and started pulling up the window while still facing her. So then she said “Babysitter’s good like that”. I started wondering what she meant. Then I was thinking perhaps it was because I was being sneaky by opening the window because she wanted it open while other people may still have been cold. Since, she is the mother of the triplets that I have babysat for and there were times when I was sneaky and would give the kids stuff they wanted even though the mother had said no beforehand.

Before Shul for Simchas Torah night, one of the mothers comes over to my house and asks me if I can watch her daughter while she gets dressed, and then after she gets dressed I would walk to shul with her. I asked her what time she’s leaving and she said 7:30. So I told her I was going to ask my mother what time my mother wants to go and then I will let her know, since beforehand my mother said she wanted to leave at 7:00. So then she says, “I’ll keep the door open for you, if you come”. So I asked my mother and she said we were leaving before and that I shouldn’t go over. Then when I see her in shul, she asks me what happened, that she was waiting for me. So I told her that it sounded like a condition, that I might go over if I could, not that I was for sure going to go, and I told her that we left 7:00. So then she says to me, “Babysitter, you are a good girl, when I was your age I wasn’t like that”. Then she started telling me how she would hang out till 11:00 at night with friends from college, and then go out again till 3 in the morning. That she had a phone so her mother knew how to reach her. It was funny to hear this, since her mother was my HS teacher, and it just didn’t fit with her personality.

Now, I love candy but I feel as though I’m older so I really am not supposed to get the candy they give out by Simchas Torah. So the first Nosh that they gave out I didn’t take, I figured I would let the little kids have first, so that there should be enough. Then as they came around with more stuff, I took, so I had 2 things at the end.

Now, here is where you learn to judge favorably. After Simchas Torah at night was over we all went back to our houses, and then I hear a knock on my door. One of the kids I babysit for tells me that his mother left nosh of his with me that I should take home and then give to him. I was thinking to myself, the mother didn’t give me anything, so did she honestly believe that she did? Or perhaps she knew that I had nosh, so she was hoping I would give my nosh away to him? Meanwhile my father had brought home an extra nosh cause he knows I like it, so I gave it away to him so that he shouldn’t have nothing. So the whole time it was troubling me, cause I couldn’t imagine that she would lie like that and expect me to give something up. Then the next day, I see her in shul again, and she asks me what her son said the night before when he came to my house. So I told her that he asked for nosh that I was supposed to have for him. So then she clarified it. What happened was, she told him that his nosh was in a box near where I was sitting. So then he had assumed I brought the box home with me to give to him. But I of course hadn’t known it was his box nor to take it home. But then it all worked out cause the next day he got his candy!

In shul by the night of Simchas Torah, one of the Rabbi’s sons was in the women’s section with his sister. I had seen them one day of chol hamoed on their way over to some rides, so I went over to ask if he had fun. He said he had fun, then he takes my ring off my finger and puts it on his. I let him wear it, then he puts it in his pants pocket. So I said “you made a magic trick, now its gone!”. I was going to get the ring back, but then his father came to get him to come to the men’s section. So then I was going to wait till they were done with laining or whatever they were doing. But it was getting cold, so I asked one of the boys I babysit for to ask the little kid for my ring back. So he went over to the Rabbi’s son who was sitting next to the Rabbi, and asks him for the ring, and he took it out of his pocket. I watched by the mechitza and wondered what the father was thinking as a ring comes out of his son’s pocket. Then the boy brings it over to me and I put it back on.