Isn't it amazing how time spent with kids can teach you so much? Sometimes it's lessons about them, and sometimes about yourself. I spent three hours this evening babysitting nine kids under the age of nine from five different families. I had two helpers. We were doing fairly well, up until a little while after dinner. At that point, one of the boys opened a bag of colored marshmallows he had brought "to share with his friends". No big deal, right? Well, I managed to destroy the bag while trying to open it, so I got a bowl to put the marshmallows in. I turned around to do something, and by the time I looked back, half the marshamallows were gone. I made an executive decision then that each kid could grab a few more, and then we were done. Their "few" turned into huge handfuls, despite my protests.
Fast forward half an hour. The sugar finally hit bottom. We're talking mayhem here. One of the girls helping me was in the living room with a few of the younger ones (2 and 5) playing Whack-a-Mole. The other helper was in one bedroom with the three oldest (9, 8, and 6). I was bouncing forth between those two groups, and the third one that consisted of the rest of the kids (2, 4, 4, and 5) playing with trains. The two kids in the living room were being mostly quiet, with only occasional disputes about who got what toy. The four playing with trains did fairly well, although I had to intervene on sharing issues several times. Surprisingly, it was the oldest three kids that were the loudest and must rambunctious. Trying to get them to be calm was unspeakably difficult.
Anyhow, on to the lesson learned. I learned several things about myself tonight. First, I realized I only really enjoy babysitting my nieces and nephews. Probably because I know them really well, and I know what their boundaries are and how to enforce them. Also, I learned that I tend to be a complainer. Painful truth. Looking back, I realize that I complained a lot to the two girls helping me, as well as my sister-in-law (who had asked me to do the babysitting). To be bluntly honest, I shouldn't have been complaining. Yes, it may have been a difficult challenge. Yes, I might've gotten a headache from the noise. Yes, it would've been nice if we could've taken them outside to run around. But I was the one who had agreed to do the job. I needed to have gone into the job with an attitude of anticipation rather than dread. Also, when the challenges came, I should've seen them as problems to be creatively solved rather than brick walls to ram my head into. Finally, I should've rolled with it and realized that, because I accepted the job of my own free will, I didn't have any room to complain about the challenges (or hazards).
So I got a painful attitude check tonight. Now my biggest problem will be remembering this lesson next time I sign up for any similar jobs.
