Babysitter Gone Wild
Disaster has struck and you don’t know what to do. You leave with your husband to go out to a nice meal and you return home to the babysitter and her boyfriend asleep on the couch half dressed along with another couple laying in front of the television. You guessed right when you told your husband you should tell them you would be out till one. Here it is at eleven o’clock and it looks like some party went on right before you arrived home. What do you do?
When you leave your children in the hands of a child in a teen’s body, occasionally, you are going to face these situations. How you handle it will be entirely up to you. The first thing you should do is send all other uninterested parties out the door whether you know their parents or not. You hired one person to do the job and she is the one who failed not these other free-loaders spread around the room. Once everyone is gone, call her parents.
It is important to never scold another child without their parents present. You could be in for a lot of trouble if you do and you need to watch what you say and do until the teen’s parents arrive because you don’t want anything misconstrued. However, once the parents do arrive. Invite the babysitter to tell on herself before you do. This will help the other parents believe the truth about their child. It is likely if you tell the story first, if the teen is a rebel, she’ll twist it up for you. If you give her the opportunity to speak first, she’ll likely tell on herself for fear of what you will tell if you take the opportunity first.
Whenever you catch a teenage babysitter in a compromising situation, it is important to tell them, in front of their parents, about your concerns. If there is an infant in the house, explain the problems associated with SID’s –the sudden infant death syndrome. If you have toddlers, touch on the fact that you never want your child to wake up frightened and a party in the house would likely frighten your child. Explain to the teen and her parents why all of this is important for you to tell so that it doesn’t happen again and then let the teen know, you won’t be using her as a sitter again.
When babysitters can not be trusted with your children, you should never give them a second chance to prove again how unsuited they are to baby-sit small children. If you already recognize the problem with the sitter, then never give them an opportunity to goof up again at the expense of your children. While it is fine to still be nice to them if the teen lives in the neighborhood, understand, there really are some teens that should never be left alone with small children. They are still too immature themselves to have the responsibility.
When babysitter troubles occur, do your best to tell only the information to the parents you feel they need to know and leave out petty details. Don’t ruin a teen’s image in front of her parents, she’ll likely have a most difficult time with a confrontation anyway and trying to embarrass her in front of the two people she loves most in the world doesn’t do anyone any good at all.
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