IN RETROSPECT

 

Babysitting was one of the first jobs I considered while in primary school. I developed a desire to be financially independent really early, and I saw the holidays as an opportunity to make money. Being the first child made me an automatic babysitter, and since I had two younger brothers, I was an expert at a very young age.

Sadly, the parents I wanted to babysit for would not drive all the way to my house to drop their babies off in my care. I did have one client—a lovely parent in my estate—who allowed me go over to her place to watch her baby.

My career as a babysitter died a natural death, and I’ve looked into more promising ventures over the years. The morning of Thursday, June 15, however, brought back some memories when a family friend dropped their four-year-old daughter in my care.

Although she was no match for my years of babysitting experience, it had been a while since I had a preschooler in my care. She came to meet me in the kitchen, and the first thing she said to me was, "I can wash plates, oh. I can cook too!" In that split moment, I remembered myself as a child. I had always been so eager to help with the dishes and cooking. If only I had known that I’d spend many more years washing plates and making food, I probably would have waited patiently.

Bringing myself back to reality, I asked what this delightful four-year-old could cook, and she said she could make rice and beans. I honestly don’t know what I was expecting her to say, but rice and beans was far off the chart. I then asked if she could tell me how to cook it, and she said all I had to do was put the rice on fire with salt.

I wasn’t going to be the one to tell her that was not how it worked, so I just laughed and said, "Okay.". Things weren’t going too badly until she needed some entertainment, and there was none. My laptop was dead, and my phone was on the way to claiming the same status, so I could barely even use it.

Luckily, my babysitting skills came to the fore, and I was able to tell her a story I made up about the animal kingdom. We didn’t get to the end of the story because of the very many times she interrupted, but she enjoyed the story, I think.

She did say we’d continue the story later, but I strongly believe she found the marbles and artificial snail shells on the center table more interesting. When I was finally done with what I had to do in the kitchen, I was exhausted, and my preschooler had found my dad’s company more interesting. Too tired to be hurt, I retired to my room to rest.

I dozed off and woke up to some sounds in the kitchen. I took a minute to tell myself there was no issue whatsoever, but then I remembered there was a four-year-old in the house, and pictures of broken plates and tumbled pots came to mind. I quite literally jumped out of bed and hurried over to the kitchen, but found her sitting peacefully in the sitting room, playing with the remotes.

Relief flooded my being, and I sat beside her, grateful that all was well. She said she missed her mommy and daddy, so I gave her a hug and told her they’d be back soon. We went into my room together, and when she saw me lying down on my bed (in my defense, I was really tired, but I had no intentions of sleeping off again), she began shouting for me not to fall asleep. She pulled my poor hands and giggled very loudly. When she was done with me, I couldn’t fall asleep, even if I wanted to.

Before the end of the day, I knew she had my blog post for this week. Watching her childlike sincerity and happiness reminded me of myself when I was little too. It also made me reflect a lot, and I thought, "Would I also, when I’m much older than this, watch someone and think, ‘She reminds me a lot of myself as a teenager’?"

I got an answer to my thought: just as I had watched the little girl and remembered myself when I was younger, I definitely will watch someone else when I’m older and remember how I am now. This conclusion brought another question to mind: "How would I want to remember these years?"

Every season we find ourselves in has something to offer, and when that season is over, we might not have access anymore to what it had in store for us. Right now, I can’t bring out the remotes and begin to play with them or do some of the things my preschooler did while at my place, but right now, I can make the best of this season I’m in; we all can, and we all should.

We should live with more love than hate, smile a bit more often, laugh a bit more easily and be kind in our words and our actions. Why? Because one day, we’ll look back in retrospect at these seasons and we definitely want the corners of our lips to rise in a smile when we do.

 Here’s a brief guide for babysitters:

1. Always have stories at your fingertips.
2. Do not fall asleep!
3. Have strong arms and fingers that cannot be broken in case the child placed in your care is trying to make you stay awake.
4. Be emotionally prepared to hear your name called multiple times within minutes.
5. Also, be emotionally prepared to receive very blunt remarks from your toddler. She told me my hair wasn’t fine.