Church Babysitting

So I needed to make some money since the Scrapbooking Guidos had been at my door to rough me up a couple of times (just kidding!).

Actually, I felt bad because we’d never had credit card debt and I wanted to be responsible and pay the thing off since it was MY fault I’d spent too much on Creative Memories stuff.

So I’m at a La Leche League meeting one morning at a church and notice a sign on a wall on my way out. It’s asking for babysitters and you can BRING YOUR KIDS!!! Bingo! Perfect! Jackpot!

The first church job led to other church jobs. Soon I was working almost every day (either morning or evening), pregnant, with a husband out of town most of the time, and dragging my 2 sons everywhere with me. We lived on McDonald’s, frozen pancakes, sausage patties and chocolate milk, totally defeating the purpose of MAKING money to pay off the credit card. I think we ate about ½ of every paycheck.

The babysitting experience led to me writing a little piece for Mother and Child Reunion.com, which included how to do daycare in your home, which I also did some of at that time.

I don’t want to give away too much on this post because I’m mildly contemplating putting this in a book somehow because the people I encountered were unbelievable. There were the women at the Baptist church who ignored me and all the children and stood together talking about liposuction. The people who thought it was disgusting to drink water from the bathroom sink (same pipes, people). The women who shooed curious little kids away from watching me change a diaper.

And don’t get me started on the parents. I’m of the school of thought that says you need a license to become a parent.

Even when we didn’t need the money anymore, we kept babysitting because the boys loved it so much. But when I was pregnant with Eva, it died off. Who wants a babysitter with 4 kids of her own that have to be in the same room with their mom? Plus I knew homeschooling would be taking up a lot of time, and I was sick of always rushing out the door to another job.

Aron’s cousin has it just right: she has 2 kids and can make about $200 working just 2 days a week (2 ½ hours each day).

If you’re interested in doing this yourself, check out my piece at MotherAndChildReunion.com. (dang, Kerrie, quit pimping your measly writing portfolio!)

Anyone else have any bad business experiences? Any at-home selling?