People will stop asking me to babysit their kids. All day. For free.
My friends' kids--they're a different story. I enjoy their company. The most I expect is to be pleasantly exhausted at the end of the evening (although some parents feed me well, which makes hanging out with their offspring for a few hours that much more pleasant).
But what I'm liking less are the assumptions that because I'm not working that I must not have anything else to do and I'd be willing to babysit for 6 to 10 hours for anyone who calls asking.
My first babysitting gig was for a woman from church. I didn't mind because her youngest daughter was in the hospital and she didn't have any support system but church people to help with the other two kids.
This time the request is coming from a woman in the RS presidency who lives a couple of blocks away. She has a nanny/babysitter two days a week, but I guess her usual person is unavailable and she called me. She said she felt bad about asking at the last minute (but didn't feel bad enough not to ask). Why me? Why not someone she knows better, who knows her children or someone who has small children and could entertain two more much easier than I can?
Since I didn't have anything scheduled (and tomorrow's RS presidency meeting is canceled because this same sister is unavailable), I said OK.
So I'm passively/aggressively bitching about being a pushover rather than saying no. Or, more accurately, saying "I can, but I don't want to because there's a difference between a compassionate service request and a 'please be conveniently available for me' request." I did have enough sense to request this gig happen at their house. Mine is not childproofed or equipped to entertain children at length.
So, instead of having the day to tidy up and get ready to host the first book group meeting tomorrow night, I'll be babysitting. Pfffbt.
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8 comments:
Wow, that would never fly in New York -- that is, not without some cash being exchanged. Seriously, if sister-last-minute can pay a nanny she should pay you. Your time is as valuable as anyone else's! And yeah, watching other people's kids is often a pain. I don't assume people are just dying to watch MY son for free even if I think he's the most delightful person on earth. Geez, the only people who should be expected to babysit for free are grandparents!
OK, rant is over. You're very, very kind.
I'd walk in the door tomorrow and before she heads out the door say, "Okay, so we agreed that my hourly rate is $25, right?"
And ditto to what Adriana said.
Oh, grand. My comment showed up FOUR times. Damn Blogger! Sorry about that ME. Of course, many by some divine provenance that means my words are inspired and true and you should follow them unquestioningly!
She says with utter, dripping sarcasm.
;-)
Hee hee--I got all excited thinking there were 6 different comments. ;)
I may adopt my mom's technique. When she was RS president, she would never answer the phone during the day. She'd listen to the machine take the calls at lunchtime and go back to work. In the evening, she'd call people back and, more often than not, they'd found a solution themselves.
I still don't know what sort of "emergency" requires my services, but I'm going to be much less inclined to take daytime calls from church people. Did I mention one of the kids is in diapers? Yeah.
I'm so sorry! For some reason, when I hit "Publish" blogger was taking FOR-EEEVVVEEERRR to publish. So, I'd hit the stop symbol in my browser and then refresh. I was horrified to see my comment FOUR times. Sheesh. I had the same thing happen on another blog, too. Gosh darn frickin' frackin' technology.
Some bloggers will let you trash your comment, while others have their settings so only they can trash comments. But no little trash can options here in the Valley... Boo hoo...
GD blogger just ate my cranky comment. So now I'm even crankier. Adriana's just glad I'm over here being cranky instead of cranking on her blog as I have been for the past hour.
(Janet's next.)
(And where the hell is JA's blog? We've been hearing tell of it for over two years now, haven't we?? I want the goods...all I get is a blank page that says Fugue Salad. See? I toldja I was cranky. You'll all be hella glad when my guts heal and I go back to work...)
Anyhoo, here's one of my pet hobby horses to ride - mormons' sense of entitlement. You know what I'm talking about, so I'll stop there b/c my guts hurt.
But grr.
"No" is my all-time favorite word, especially when dealing with mormons. Boundary issues anyone?
(Also, I was kinda disappointed that all those deleted comments were just b/c of a blogger fart - I thought you'd generated some big controversy, and I was all excited about it...)
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