Embarrassing Babysitting Moments

Reflecting back at my year of Babysitting I started remembering different embarrassing moments. Even though I got embarrassed from them they still make fond memories. A few I have already posted about. About being surprised when the kids school bus driver opened the doors and offered to give me a ride with all the other little kids. About being questioned on who babysits who, in that everyone thinks I’m so young. Now I will reflect back to the top embarrassing stories that have happened.

1. I was babysitting by the Rav of my Shul’s family. They were going to a wedding, and the younger 2 kids were staying home. So after babysitting, the Rav drives me home. When he gets to my house, he presses the automatic door opening button, and the sliding door doesn’t open. I’m wondering what happened, and I tried to open the door myself, I got it open a little and was able to come out. Then I realized I was stuck to the car door and the car door had jammed. So the Rav comes out of his seat and checks to see what happened. I had been wearing a long skirt, and apparently it got stuck in the car door. I was mortified, I tried pulling my skirt free, but it was jammed. The Rav then was able to pull my skirt free. In a way it’s a good thing it was a long skirt, because it was only the extra part below the knee that had to be pulled free, so nothing showed. But yet if I hadn’t worn a long skirt then it probably would never have got stuck. So after that, every time I see an automatic sliding car door, I think about what happened, and I’m glad my car door isn’t automatic.
   




2. So I always go over to the large family on my block almost every shabbos to play with the kids. It’s the one family I truly enjoy the kids, so even though I stopped babysitting, I get to still go over there on shabbos and enjoy them. They have all ages, and for some reason a bunch of them got into their head that I need to learn how to dance for when I get married in the future, so they decided it was their job to teach me. So I had all the little kids urging me to get up off the floor from playing with the baby and to hold their hands and dance. This was in the living room, with their mother sitting on the couch watching. I tried getting out of it, but they were persistent, so I gave in and did a little dancing with them, going in circles, and then one by one with each of them. It was really embarrassing, so then I told the kids that I will just watch them dance. They said ok, and relieved I sat back to watch them dance wildly. Then their father came home for Shalosh Seudos, and was wondering what they were doing, and they said they were helping me practice to learn how to dance for my wedding. I was mortified again. After that when I came home I told my mother how I can’t wait to invite them all to my wedding, that I would have so much fun with them, and that I love them so much. My mother said that I probably won’t get to invite all of them, because it would be a late night and it wouldn’t work out for the little kids. I still hope that I would be able to invite them all, and I would truly miss them. So far no wedding coming up so I get to enjoy them!
   




3. This next one I sort of once posted about but not completely. So one of the mothers I babysat by enjoyed teasing me about how I’m a college student, but yet I don’t know so many obvious things that are standard knowledge. It happened to many times for me to remember, each time although I knew it was just for fun and wasn’t meant as an insult or anything, it was still embarrassing, especially when it was in front of other adults. Once it happened because I mixed up Sadam Hussein and Osama Bin Laden. Another time it was because I didn’t know what the Gulf War was about and where the gulf was. Another time it was about why we were at war in Iraq. Then all these other history, current events and geography stuff. I just never enjoyed studying it, so I didn’t pay much attention to all these details, so I didn’t know the answers. Although sometimes for some weird reason I would purposefully make myself look foolish to see her reaction, and I would laugh about it. Whenever that happens, I feel like a little kid all over again, as if I’m testing the parent.
   




4. This last story hasn’t happened yet, but I’m imagining that I will be embarrassed if and when it happens. So last year the mother of the triplets gave me a key holder thing as a birthday present, it was really nice and I put her key and my key on it. I would use it ever day to open her door to let her kids in after I picked them up from the bus stop. Then once I finished babysitting there at the end of June, I asked the mother if I should give her the key back and she said that I should keep it in case she needs me sometime to get the kids again and to bring them in the house. So I kept the key, all was good till one day I get to my front door and reach for my keys and find they are gone! I started to worry what happened to them, I figured maybe when I was taking out my metro card they slipped out of the pocket. I retraced my steps a bit and didn’t find anything. I figured when I go to school the next day I’ll look for them. So I hadn’t completely despaired and the next day I had hope I would find the keys. I checked in the hallway and classroom I had been at that day, I checked the side walk, I walked around campus with my eyes on the floor hoping to see something shiny, I checked the city bus stop. But I didn’t find anything, so I then gave up hope in finding it. I had another copy of my house key made, but I didn’t have another key holder, so I just never used it and would always go in through the side door. I was a little bit upset that I lost my birthday present since it had sentimental value. I was afraid to call the mother to tell her that I lost her key. So I just never called her, and she doesn’t know. Since now I stopped babysitting, I can get out of the uncomfortable situation by having an excuse that I’m not babysitting anymore, but then I wonder if she would ask for her key back. Or am I supposed to just call her anyways and tell her that I lost her key? The thought of getting embarrassed by losing her key is what is stopping me from telling her.