My husband and I have a date coming up this weekend and it will be the first time that our son has had a babysitter. Kind of. While I work, my sister babysits and all the other times we’ve had a babysitter it’s been a family member who has watched him at their house. This will be the first time we’ll have a “they come to your house, get the rundown on your child, you leave and they stay with your child until you get back” scenario. The babysitter is a good friend of mine, so I don’t have any concerns there, but this is still a big step for me. As a first-time mom, I’ve started to prepare for the hand off.
There are things that I want to tell her. Things like: he likes to be held with you cradling him over your arm while he is on his tummy. He can pull himself up by holding onto chairs or the couch, but he gets scared when he doesn’t know how to sit back down. He likes his back to be rubbed in circles just so. He likes Cheerios, but also likes to hit the high chair tray causing them to fly everywhere. He likes the blue blanket when he sleeps, but just from the knees on down. If he lets you hold him and rock him, then he’s probably really tired.
I want to tell her that he’s fascinated by flashlights. He’s figured out that when I push buttons on the microwave, it will turn on in a few seconds - he waits for it and smiles. And his little plastic balls? He likes the one with the puppy in it the best. He doesn’t particularly like to lay still long enough for a diaper change, so you’ll have a mini wrestling match on your hands. He doesn’t take a sippy cup yet, but loves to “drink” water from a spoon. And he makes the cutest little “mm…mm…mm” sound when he eats something that he really likes.
But I probably won’t tell her much of that. The things I want to tell her aren’t exactly the tools she’ll need for spending the evening with my son. Sure, they’ll play together, and when he cries for certain things, she’ll figure out what he’s asking for and how to help him. But the things I want to tell her — the things that only a mom and a dad know about their beautiful child — those are the things I’ll struggle to keep back.
Instead, I’ll focus on the things that I need to tell her. Things like how to contact us, where we’ll be, other emergency contact numbers, what time he goes to bed, feeding instructions, bedtime routines and how the TV remote works.
That’s the difference between a parent and a babysitter. A mom gets to know all things. A babysitter just knows what sh needs to know. And while I’m so grateful for good babysitters, I’m very happy being the mom.
What do you tell your babysitter about your child?
