Occasionally (much too much occasionally for our taste) Ryan and I get to go out on a real life big-people-only date. We don’t set any schedule, we don’t make sure we go out once a month, we don’t have a favourite dinner place or anything. Truthfully, our budget can’t sustain that kind of stuff. And also? It’s a hell of a lotta work to organize a night out away from three kids. There are no last-minute rendezvous anymore, all spontaneity is lost to three busy ladies in a busy house.
Meh. It’s not as bad as it sounds. We’ve wrangled up at least three solid babysitters for nights and weekends when it’s unfair to keep asking family for childcare help. Zoë is a social worker and lifelong friend of my cousins, Sierra & Hayley are our nieces and live pretty close. We lucked out in being able to find these girls, they were all basically at our doorstep already, just waiting to be asked. I understand it’s not always that easy for people & I got into a discussion not long ago about how to find an occasional babysitter. I wanted to share the tips that came out of a debate on the hows and whys and wheres of finding a babysitter for when you just need a break.
Fact: As parents raising little one-day-self-sufficient-humans, we all work hard.
Fact: We all love our sometimes-drive-ya-crazy kids.
Fact: We all need/deserve/have earned a break.When I was a panelist at a Working Mom’s seminar, I was surprised to find that the most lively discussion centered around something that I never considered to be a universal struggle. When we got talking about child care & how & where to find it, how much to pay for it & how to know you made the right choice- a sidebar discussion opened up about babysitters…like, on the weekend…. {READ MORE HERE…}
