Nanny 911

I have been a babysitter for as long as I can remember! I love kids. Ever since it was physically possible for me to hold a baby, I was. The thing about babysitting or even being a nanny, is that typically the children have parents, and more often then not, the parents have some kind of rules and boundaries that they want their children to follow. It's the babysitter's job to make sure that the rules get followed and come along side the parents to uphold some kind of discipline. Multi tasking is key in babysitting as well as being a parent, so I've heard. The maximum number of kids that I have babysat before was 5, so I learned the skill of multi tasking. Yesterday I was babysitting 35 children...this took multi tasking to a whole new level!
At first, it was just a typical day. I arrived at Smile, fed Bogere, and headed to the babies room to help out the teachers that had been there all night and could use a rest. On my way to the babies room, I happened to notice a 2 year old girl with a burn on her face. I picked her up and quickly took to her to the nurse so she could have it cleaned and bandaged. Once she was all taken care of she went back outside to play with the other children and I went into the babies room. All 3 of the teachers said they needed to eat and get cleaned up, so they left. It was me, the 2 month old twins, 1 week old Josh, and Bogere. Everyone was wide awake and wanting my attention. I got some toys out for Bogere to play with so he was occupied. All 3 of the babies needed to be fed, so I quickly made their bottles and fed all 3 of them at the same time. One of the teachers finally came back and began bathing Josh, so I was left with the twins. Taking care of twins is really no challenge for me, thanks to Michelle Lutz! I have had plenty of practice with twins. The teacher then told me that we did not have warm water to bathe the babies in today, but they still needed to be clean, so it was going to have to a quick bath. The other teachers just watched as I bathed the twins together really quickly. They were not happy with no warm water. Once the bath was done I needed to quickly get them dry and clothed so they were not freezing. I put a diaper on Eric with my right hand and a diaper on Ruth with my left hand. I did this with Jack and Phin Lutz when they were still little and couldn't move around as much. So I have had a lot of practice. Thank you Jack and Phin. :) I took the bucket of water outside to dump it and I noticed that the teacher for the 2-5 year olds was not there. So there was about 35 children running everywhere. So I grabbed Bogere and left the babies with 2 teachers. I needed to feed the little kids and make sure everything was running smoothly. A few of the kids ran up to me so I bent down and hugged them and played with them. Bogere got very jealous! He is at a stage now where he is comfortable with me, so now he starts pushing his limits to see how much I will let him get away with. All the parents whose children I have watched before, know that I don't let them get away with much! hehe. As a little boy comes to greet me, Bogere kicks this boy in the leg. My jaw drops and I get down on his level and I tell him in Swahili, "Bogere, you cannot hit other people! That is not ok. Do not fight with other children. Tell him sorry for hitting him." Bogere refused, so I picked him up and took him to the office and sat him down. I told him that he was going to sit in the office and not move until he was ready to say sorry to that little boy. I then told him that I was going to go back outside with the other children. I left him without looking back and I came back about 4 min later. Bogere then said sorry to me and the little boy. I hated leaving me out and I hated seeing him upset. There is going to be a time when I have to go home though and he is going to remain here. If he wants to stay at Smile then he is going to have to learn to behave and get along with the other children. I love him very much, but I am not here to spoil him and let him get away with everything. I am here to love him, show how to behave, and teach him how to be nice to the other teachers and children.
After the fighting incident, the day got a lot better. Bogere realized that I was not going to put up with the fighting or being mean to the other kids. So he calmed down and began helping the little children, including his brother. At the end of the day Bogere hugged me and said he was going home. He put his little brother on his back and walked home. I was very proud of him yesterday. I have been giving him a lot of one on one attention and he learned to share me with 35 other children! This was the most epic babysitting job of my life!