Ok so how does one go on a playdate when they have no kids. Simple. THe other 2 moms are knitters and you don't mind being around the kids.
Let me backup. I have no car. One of my knitting friends is on vacation and the other is a SAHM. My friend on vacation put the idea of a playdate out there earlier this week. I agred to the idea. Last night I had an email talking about getting together today. I was up for it. So my friend that was on vacation picked me up on the way to our other friend's house and we all got together. The kids had a playdate while we got to knit. Life is good.
Even better is that my friend Kristy got to move on to the next round of Jukebox Hero. YAY Kristy!!!!
Showing posts with label Kids. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Kids. Show all posts
Wednesday, August 08, 2007
Saturday, April 21, 2007
Kids!!!
I'm on the verge of quitting babysitting the 10 "C" and 13 "N"year olds. I'm actually at the pint of issiung an ultimatium. This is what's gone on the past couple weeks to cause me to get to this point.
One Wednesday a couple weeks back I get Nand C off the bus from school. Everything goes fine at first. That is till they go outside, play, and I go to the bathroom. In the couple minutes I was in the bathroom they start to fight outide. N comes in gets the phone and calls his grandmother instead of getting me. That issue gets resolved.
Not 10 minutes later they are in the kitchen and I hear C yelling at N to get away from her. I go to find out whats going on and C says that N went to hit her with the Wiffle ball bat. N says he was playing with the dog. Whatever the deal...why does he have the bat in the house. Also C is on the counter away from him and the dog is away from him too. I tell N to give me the bat. He says "NO." I'm now in the middle of the kitchen and mad at him and the way he's talking to me (not new for him, but new for him to me). I look at C and tell her to go into the living room. I tell N to give me the bat again and he refuses so I take it from him and tell him to get in the office, and announce that noone is going out to play. He says he doesn't have to listen to me and walks outside. I've had it and call his grandfather. In the meantime their mom calls and I tell her what's going on. She gets there and picks up the kids.
It's now 3 days later and I have the kids for the night. N's already in a bad mood. I'm having a hard time as I'm dealing with the new's of my cousin's baby's loss. N and C's mom leaves for work. Not 5 minutes later N goes into C's room and get's her game system and brings it into her system. They start fighting over it. I try to end it with a couple options as I don't know what the rule is as to where it is supposed to be. Yet again N gets nasty with me. I call his mom to find out the rule and she says to take it out of both their rooms. Things escalate, N won't give it to me and his mom has to call N's grandfather. Thankfully the takes N for the night. In the meantime I get the game system by rtemoving his hand from it and and getting threatened by N.
Which brings us to tonight. Before I even get there tonight to watch the kids I get yelled at and N is off the wall. I'm in tears and an anxious stressed out wreck. I actually had to tell the kids grandmom that I couldn't handle it tonight. Between the kid being so wriled up, knowing I was going to be left with him in that kind of mood, and me being yelled at for no reason, I just couldn't take it. I was an emotional wreck. Which leads to my ultimatium. Either the kid goes back on his medication (which he needs) and striaghtens out his act, or I quit watching them.
One Wednesday a couple weeks back I get Nand C off the bus from school. Everything goes fine at first. That is till they go outside, play, and I go to the bathroom. In the couple minutes I was in the bathroom they start to fight outide. N comes in gets the phone and calls his grandmother instead of getting me. That issue gets resolved.
Not 10 minutes later they are in the kitchen and I hear C yelling at N to get away from her. I go to find out whats going on and C says that N went to hit her with the Wiffle ball bat. N says he was playing with the dog. Whatever the deal...why does he have the bat in the house. Also C is on the counter away from him and the dog is away from him too. I tell N to give me the bat. He says "NO." I'm now in the middle of the kitchen and mad at him and the way he's talking to me (not new for him, but new for him to me). I look at C and tell her to go into the living room. I tell N to give me the bat again and he refuses so I take it from him and tell him to get in the office, and announce that noone is going out to play. He says he doesn't have to listen to me and walks outside. I've had it and call his grandfather. In the meantime their mom calls and I tell her what's going on. She gets there and picks up the kids.
It's now 3 days later and I have the kids for the night. N's already in a bad mood. I'm having a hard time as I'm dealing with the new's of my cousin's baby's loss. N and C's mom leaves for work. Not 5 minutes later N goes into C's room and get's her game system and brings it into her system. They start fighting over it. I try to end it with a couple options as I don't know what the rule is as to where it is supposed to be. Yet again N gets nasty with me. I call his mom to find out the rule and she says to take it out of both their rooms. Things escalate, N won't give it to me and his mom has to call N's grandfather. Thankfully the takes N for the night. In the meantime I get the game system by rtemoving his hand from it and and getting threatened by N.
Which brings us to tonight. Before I even get there tonight to watch the kids I get yelled at and N is off the wall. I'm in tears and an anxious stressed out wreck. I actually had to tell the kids grandmom that I couldn't handle it tonight. Between the kid being so wriled up, knowing I was going to be left with him in that kind of mood, and me being yelled at for no reason, I just couldn't take it. I was an emotional wreck. Which leads to my ultimatium. Either the kid goes back on his medication (which he needs) and striaghtens out his act, or I quit watching them.
Monday, April 16, 2007
All was going fine until after I got back from knitting. That's when everything went to hck in a handbasket and I'm still trying to put myself back together. I call him my cousin (he's Mom's sister's son) and his wife have been expecting a baby. The baby was due Sunday. I made a blanket for the baby. Well, the baby died. One day everything is going along nice and smoothly. The due date is less than a week away. Everything goes perfectly fine at the doctor's office. THe next day the baby is dead. He didn't even get to be born alive. How cruel can life be? Give me all the rationale you want, it's not going to help right now. Plus I had to babysit and the 13 year old was being a pain int the butt. I'm at the point of telling his mom that if he gets out of line like he has been this past week a few more times she can find herself a new sitter. I'VE HAD IT WITH KIDS THAT THINK THEY CAN TALKBACK AND GET AWAY WITH EVERYTHING!!!Yes I'm in a bad mood. Don't even get me going on the other people at the electric company today (customers not employees).
Mood:beyond irate
Mood:beyond irate
Sunday, April 08, 2007
What a past couple weeks
It's been a little busy here to say the least. I've finally gotten over being sick. That took a wonderful month. It's still been busy here. I'm babysitting 1 afternoon and 2 nights a week. Plus my group, advisory board, it's committees (I've joined 2 Ad Hoc committees), and all the other things in life.
Babysitting is going along smoothly for the most part. With the kids at least. I say the kids bit because last weekend I had a little problem with the adults downstairs. I had only 1 of the kids as the other one was spending the night elsewhere. The child (10 yrs) and I were asleep and I wake up hearing slamming doors, yelling and whatnot downstairs (I watch the kids at their home). I go down and politely ask the people downstairs to quietdown as I have a child upstairs trying to sleep as well as I am. Also it's midnight. Half an hour later they're still going at it and throwing things. I've had it and go down to tell them that the cops are being called. It's reached beyond rediculious. I'm begged not to. The guy across the hall tells them that if they make 1 more noise he'll call the cops. A fistfight breaks out within seconds so the guy and I both call the cops. I've also told the child who they woke up to get her things together. I was taking her to my place. THankfully her mom leaves her car for emergencies. Apparently when the cops showed up some people ran, but the people that didn't got mouthy with the police and ended up getting arrested. Hopefully things quiet down and I adjust to the new schedule soon. Yeah it's been 2 months and I still haven't adjusted to not being home 2 nights a week. At least the kids are good when they're with me and I can knit while there.
Babysitting is going along smoothly for the most part. With the kids at least. I say the kids bit because last weekend I had a little problem with the adults downstairs. I had only 1 of the kids as the other one was spending the night elsewhere. The child (10 yrs) and I were asleep and I wake up hearing slamming doors, yelling and whatnot downstairs (I watch the kids at their home). I go down and politely ask the people downstairs to quietdown as I have a child upstairs trying to sleep as well as I am. Also it's midnight. Half an hour later they're still going at it and throwing things. I've had it and go down to tell them that the cops are being called. It's reached beyond rediculious. I'm begged not to. The guy across the hall tells them that if they make 1 more noise he'll call the cops. A fistfight breaks out within seconds so the guy and I both call the cops. I've also told the child who they woke up to get her things together. I was taking her to my place. THankfully her mom leaves her car for emergencies. Apparently when the cops showed up some people ran, but the people that didn't got mouthy with the police and ended up getting arrested. Hopefully things quiet down and I adjust to the new schedule soon. Yeah it's been 2 months and I still haven't adjusted to not being home 2 nights a week. At least the kids are good when they're with me and I can knit while there.
Sunday, March 18, 2007
Interesting week
Let's see, cooking corned beef for the first time, getting stuck at the local prison, yelling at one of the kids I watch, having a quick hear to heart with same kid in the same night, calling the police asking for a saftey check, getting stuck twice at the lab, and getting a reputation at the docs office. I'd say it was a well rounded week. I'll break it all down.
Corned beef -- I've never made it before. My mom always makes it and I love it. Since I couldn't be with my family yesterday I thought I'd make it myself. The cooking impaired one making a big dinner like that with a smoke detector that goes off at the drop of a hat. The stove, me, meat, and everything else survived thankfully. In fact it went well enough I'm planning on doing it again next year for the whole family.
Getting stuck at the prison -- This should have been a sign to me yesterday morning that the day was not going to run smoothly. The bus I take to knitting goes into the prison each time by. I have no clue why but it does. Near the entrance there's a little circle it can go around, but the drivers have been told not to. This driver decides to anyways. Also there's a pickup truck in the circle. The driver cuts it too short and the rear wheel goes up over the curb. Thanks to the watterlogged ground with snow on top of it as soon as he jumps the curb the bus got stuck in the mud. No just stuck though. That rear tire was buried up to the axle. Rather the axle was resting on the curb. Thank you driver. We can't go anywhere. A mechanic comes and confirms this, brings us pasesngers to where other busses get together hourly so we can all continue with our day and the bus got towed out.
THe kids -- also I had kid duth last night and one of them was in a bad mood and I had to be the mean babysitter instead of my usual nice and fun side. Telling the kid that they're going to bed early, all that lovely jazz. Not 30 min later I'm having to have a heart to heart with the same kid over a scene in a movie that was on TV.
Calling the police -- R and I hadn't heard from D all week and we were worried about her. She wasn't answering her phone or returning our calls. What does the crisis team tell me to do when I call? I get told to call the police and ask for them to go out and do a saftey check on her. By the way we were in the middle of a winter storm at the time. THe police were nice enough to take all the info and told me that they would but it would be a while. In the meantime D calls. So I had to get her off the phone so i can call the police back and tell them that D called and is ok.
I sure hope that this upcoming week is quiet.
Corned beef -- I've never made it before. My mom always makes it and I love it. Since I couldn't be with my family yesterday I thought I'd make it myself. The cooking impaired one making a big dinner like that with a smoke detector that goes off at the drop of a hat. The stove, me, meat, and everything else survived thankfully. In fact it went well enough I'm planning on doing it again next year for the whole family.
Getting stuck at the prison -- This should have been a sign to me yesterday morning that the day was not going to run smoothly. The bus I take to knitting goes into the prison each time by. I have no clue why but it does. Near the entrance there's a little circle it can go around, but the drivers have been told not to. This driver decides to anyways. Also there's a pickup truck in the circle. The driver cuts it too short and the rear wheel goes up over the curb. Thanks to the watterlogged ground with snow on top of it as soon as he jumps the curb the bus got stuck in the mud. No just stuck though. That rear tire was buried up to the axle. Rather the axle was resting on the curb. Thank you driver. We can't go anywhere. A mechanic comes and confirms this, brings us pasesngers to where other busses get together hourly so we can all continue with our day and the bus got towed out.
THe kids -- also I had kid duth last night and one of them was in a bad mood and I had to be the mean babysitter instead of my usual nice and fun side. Telling the kid that they're going to bed early, all that lovely jazz. Not 30 min later I'm having to have a heart to heart with the same kid over a scene in a movie that was on TV.
Calling the police -- R and I hadn't heard from D all week and we were worried about her. She wasn't answering her phone or returning our calls. What does the crisis team tell me to do when I call? I get told to call the police and ask for them to go out and do a saftey check on her. By the way we were in the middle of a winter storm at the time. THe police were nice enough to take all the info and told me that they would but it would be a while. In the meantime D calls. So I had to get her off the phone so i can call the police back and tell them that D called and is ok.
I sure hope that this upcoming week is quiet.
Monday, February 19, 2007
When it comes to me and kids, I can handle the serious stuff. Give me: you need stitches (I can handle minor cuts and scrapes too). Give me you're in respriatory or cardiac arrest. I can handle you're choking too. I can take sprained ankles and broken bones. Give me anything along that kind of stuff and I'm perfectly fine. I can swing right into motion without thinking twice. Give me you don't feel good ...your sick. What am I going to do? I'm going to look at you like you have 3 heads while I shush the adrenaline and figure out what to do. I haven't raised kids. I live vicariously through others in this department. I don't know off the top of my head what to do for a 10 year that's got an upset stomach besides hold the asprin.
Last week I got 2 crash courses in parenting. Previous posts have covered 1 of them a bit. Looking back at them it's rather scketchy and behind the cut covers both of them with a little humor. I can laugh now.
So Monday night's Crash Course: What to do for a 10 year old that had an upset stomach in the middle of the night.
Scenario: You are going upstairs into your apartment on the 3rd floor. The 13 and 10 year olds that you are taking care of are asleep in the main part of the house 1 floor below you on the second floor. You told them when they went to bed that if they needed anything during the night and the downstairs lights were off you would be right upstairs. As you open the door to your apartment to go from the 2nd to the 3rd floor you hear the 10 year old "C" call you from the bathroom and say that they don't feel good. You go in and discovet that they have thrown up (thankfuly in the toilet so no cleanup). What do you do? Remember you have not had experience with this before (at least with children and thankfully the sight of emesis doesn't make you sick)
In my world I sat down with her and felt her forehead. Not warm. Good.
Asked if she wanted any Pepto {Bismol}. Refused. Me thinking ok, what next...
Asked her what mommy usually does. She's doesn't remember. Me thinking ok...
I look up and see a washcloth...Score. Wet it and put it on her forehead. She feels a little better. Good.
Ask if she wants to lay in the living room. No, she wants to go back to bed. Ok.
Get her back to bed with another washcloth (other one used to wipe mouth), told to make sure she stays on side, and given a bowl just in case.
Then leave her mom a voicemail and call a friend to make sure I did right. Think My crash course is over yet...Nope. I ended up staying up with "C" for another 4 hours with her getting up sick 2-3 times an hour. Couldn't come up with anything else to do for her. She kept refusing pepto, figured if her mom wanted her to have it then her mom can make her take it when she gets home. Finally her mom came home didn't get message till shift was over and took over. Thus ending my crash course in parenting till 2 days later and another incident which I could handle.2 days later...It's mid afternoon and "N" and "C" want to go downstairs and say hi to the downstairs tenant. "N" wants to hang out. I say ok and as for the hanging out as long as it's ok with them. Next thing know there's yelling and crying. I walk into the other room. They are yelling at each other"C" through tears and is holding her arm. What to do? Noone to call in this case and it's storming out (everything is icing).
Starters...get them to stop. I'm not even going to try and sort out who did what to who. I just tell them their mom can sort it out when she gets home. Since "C" was in the room first she gets to stay in that room to watch tv. "N" can either go upstairs in the grandparents room to watch tv or in the other room where I am and do the same. hey they both wated to watch tv and there's nothing else to do.
now that they are separated swing into evaluation mode. What hurts? Arm/Wrist. Apparently "N" twisted it. Can you move it? "C" does. Can you move your fingers? good. I check for swelling and there's none nor any bruising. BY now I'm sinlently cursing the sibling out. Go make ice pack and give it to "C" with instructions to keep it on. I'll chek on her, but if anything changes let me know. So we all survived intact, sane, and ready to go another day. Do I want to keep watching the kids??
Last week I got 2 crash courses in parenting. Previous posts have covered 1 of them a bit. Looking back at them it's rather scketchy and behind the cut covers both of them with a little humor. I can laugh now.
So Monday night's Crash Course: What to do for a 10 year old that had an upset stomach in the middle of the night.
Scenario: You are going upstairs into your apartment on the 3rd floor. The 13 and 10 year olds that you are taking care of are asleep in the main part of the house 1 floor below you on the second floor. You told them when they went to bed that if they needed anything during the night and the downstairs lights were off you would be right upstairs. As you open the door to your apartment to go from the 2nd to the 3rd floor you hear the 10 year old "C" call you from the bathroom and say that they don't feel good. You go in and discovet that they have thrown up (thankfuly in the toilet so no cleanup). What do you do? Remember you have not had experience with this before (at least with children and thankfully the sight of emesis doesn't make you sick)
In my world I sat down with her and felt her forehead. Not warm. Good.
Asked if she wanted any Pepto {Bismol}. Refused. Me thinking ok, what next...
Asked her what mommy usually does. She's doesn't remember. Me thinking ok...
I look up and see a washcloth...Score. Wet it and put it on her forehead. She feels a little better. Good.
Ask if she wants to lay in the living room. No, she wants to go back to bed. Ok.
Get her back to bed with another washcloth (other one used to wipe mouth), told to make sure she stays on side, and given a bowl just in case.
Then leave her mom a voicemail and call a friend to make sure I did right. Think My crash course is over yet...Nope. I ended up staying up with "C" for another 4 hours with her getting up sick 2-3 times an hour. Couldn't come up with anything else to do for her. She kept refusing pepto, figured if her mom wanted her to have it then her mom can make her take it when she gets home. Finally her mom came home didn't get message till shift was over and took over. Thus ending my crash course in parenting till 2 days later and another incident which I could handle.2 days later...It's mid afternoon and "N" and "C" want to go downstairs and say hi to the downstairs tenant. "N" wants to hang out. I say ok and as for the hanging out as long as it's ok with them. Next thing know there's yelling and crying. I walk into the other room. They are yelling at each other"C" through tears and is holding her arm. What to do? Noone to call in this case and it's storming out (everything is icing).
Starters...get them to stop. I'm not even going to try and sort out who did what to who. I just tell them their mom can sort it out when she gets home. Since "C" was in the room first she gets to stay in that room to watch tv. "N" can either go upstairs in the grandparents room to watch tv or in the other room where I am and do the same. hey they both wated to watch tv and there's nothing else to do.
now that they are separated swing into evaluation mode. What hurts? Arm/Wrist. Apparently "N" twisted it. Can you move it? "C" does. Can you move your fingers? good. I check for swelling and there's none nor any bruising. BY now I'm sinlently cursing the sibling out. Go make ice pack and give it to "C" with instructions to keep it on. I'll chek on her, but if anything changes let me know. So we all survived intact, sane, and ready to go another day. Do I want to keep watching the kids??
Tuesday, February 13, 2007
Gotta Laugh At Yourself
And tonight was one of those nights that I did. So I ended up sitting Nicky and Carlie. THere was a little issue of the sitter calling Julie 45 min before she was supposed to be here saying she needed a ride. That was also the time Julie was getting ready for work so her going to get the sitter was not an option. It was me to the rescue. Hey I was on standby for things like this anyways.
The kids were great all night. Dodn't have to ask them to take chowers. No problems with them going to bed. Actually one went to bed early of their own accord. I shoud have known things were going too smoothly.
It was, and the hitch came about an 75 min ago when I went to come upstairs to my own place (I was watching them downstairs). I heard a little voice out of the bathroom saying that they didn't feel good. Turns out that Carlie had thrown up and their stomach was bothering them. Ok. I can deal with this, but my mind just blanked out. Give me a crisis. I can handle blood; cuts, even a deep ones. I can handle choking, cardiac and respriatory arrest. Basically Give me emergencies and I'm good. It's from my being a CNA and nursing student. Also, naturally I can handle the female end of life. Give me run of the mill things and I tend to blank out for a second. I can handle myself, but to figure out how to care for someone else in this aspect...I'm a tad bit rusty. I ended up doing a few things (try to make her laugh, cool washcloth, offer pepto, give her a bowl) and then once I got her resting again called a friend to double check that I didn't forget anything. Oh yeah left a voice mail on her mom's cell. Hey I haven't raised any kids of my own yet. I just do it vicariously through others. It made my friend laugh though, me calling about wether or not I left anything out.
The kids were great all night. Dodn't have to ask them to take chowers. No problems with them going to bed. Actually one went to bed early of their own accord. I shoud have known things were going too smoothly.
It was, and the hitch came about an 75 min ago when I went to come upstairs to my own place (I was watching them downstairs). I heard a little voice out of the bathroom saying that they didn't feel good. Turns out that Carlie had thrown up and their stomach was bothering them. Ok. I can deal with this, but my mind just blanked out. Give me a crisis. I can handle blood; cuts, even a deep ones. I can handle choking, cardiac and respriatory arrest. Basically Give me emergencies and I'm good. It's from my being a CNA and nursing student. Also, naturally I can handle the female end of life. Give me run of the mill things and I tend to blank out for a second. I can handle myself, but to figure out how to care for someone else in this aspect...I'm a tad bit rusty. I ended up doing a few things (try to make her laugh, cool washcloth, offer pepto, give her a bowl) and then once I got her resting again called a friend to double check that I didn't forget anything. Oh yeah left a voice mail on her mom's cell. Hey I haven't raised any kids of my own yet. I just do it vicariously through others. It made my friend laugh though, me calling about wether or not I left anything out.
Monday, February 12, 2007
Survived weekend
Well, survived the weekend. Jon and Pam left Friday night for the hotel to fly out Saturday morning to Puerto Rico. So Julie and the kids are staying here to dog sit. Well it was Julie till today when the kids returned from their aunts. I dog sat at night the past few nights. Tonight Rhonda started sitting the kids. Julie started a new job last week. All this goin on in such a short amount of time and some things were up in the air. That's why I was saying that I survived the weekend. So many things going on, things to keep straight plus a new sitter on board. Gaaaahhhh.
Plus it was my Dad's birthday yesterday so that meant no knitting group. :'( Oh well. I got knitting time in anyways.
As for the fair, still plugging away and we have money for it now.
Plus it was my Dad's birthday yesterday so that meant no knitting group. :'( Oh well. I got knitting time in anyways.
As for the fair, still plugging away and we have money for it now.
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