Adventures in Babysitting

On occassion, we're invited to babysit some of our grandchildren. For us, its a treasured experience. Generally they are well behaved, affectionate by giving us big hugs, always ask permission to do something, and mind our every word. For that, they enjoy the relative confines of a warm home, lots of toys to play with, books to read, and if their parents allow, can watch only approved TV programs. For the more advanced, if their parents allow and with our permission, they can play the eye/hand coordinated game console, PS2.

Our grand children range in ages that keeps us on our toes. Most of the time, we prefer the self maintained ones, already potty trained, pretty much the ones that require low maintenance. Of course we don't neglect them one bit and will see to their needs. Sometimes a treat comes in real handy as a motivator, but we too are concerned about the nutritional impact on these little folks.

We require advance reservation, as much as possible, to insure that the time slot is available for such matters. Perspective grandchildren should be accompanied with the required foods (specially formulated or breast pumped milk, of which is not available at our home), sufficient diapers or pull-ups, change of clothing, etc.

This whole experience is not lost for either the grandchildren or the grandparents. We treasure the little things, noticing how well their creativity has increased, perhaps their recognition of things or words or pictures. We enjoy their bright responses, playful maners, and cooperative spirit when it comes time to put the toys away. We certainly are blessed to have seventeen grandchildren with a new set of twins on the way. It makes us proud to be grandparents.

On Friday, we were invited to babysit our four grandchildren who live less than a block away. Their parents had the opportunity to attend a concert featuring 80's hip hop rap stars (The news reported this event as a big success. It tells you how UT County is far behind the times.) So we got to enjoy the two younger ones who needed our attention while the older two had other interest, like saving the galaxy or something on the PS2. We found that we didn't loose our touch with bottle feeding Ruby or even burpping her. We kept real busy with Teddy until he started to ware down, just in time for bed. So, another successful evening, we survived the grandchildren, and yeah, we still got it!