I babysat in the late 60’s until I went to college in ‘73. I had good kids who were a joy to babysit, and I had horrorshow kids that pushed boundaries at every moment. I wasn’t easily pushed even though I understood but the parents said no, but it still left me stressed out. I had a child who was born with hip issues which turned her legs inwards and she had to sleep in this contraption that spread them apart to get the hips used to the new configuration. I had a child who had ADAH disorder, who was sweet as can be, but even with his medication he was 2 hours or more falling alseep, fidgiting and talking to himself the entire time, but rarely asking if he could get up. There were dogs and cats and Mr Rodgers when the kids were awake, and shows like The Outer Limits when they were in bed. When asked I requested 50 cents/hour, and I usually got at least 75 cents an hour, with some of the larger families and really, really horrowshow kids giving me more. One New Year’s Eve I babysat two average kids even though the grandmother was there. She was nice, but I soon realized she was senile and not really in the here and now most of the time. I had quoted $1 per hour (holiday premium) and I got $5/ hour. Two for the kids, three for watching over granny and making sure she knew she was not alone. Boy, did I hit the nostalgia button, those were good years as my neighborhood was mostly young couples with the under-12 crowd. I sat nearly every evening. Sigh. Back to cleaning the kitchen…….
I babysat in the late 60’s until I went to college in ‘73. I had good kids who were a joy to babysit, and I had horrorshow kids that pushed boundaries at every moment. I wasn’t easily pushed even though I understood but the parents said no, but it still left me stressed out. I had a child who was born with hip issues which turned her legs inwards and she had to sleep in this contraption that spread them apart to get the hips used to the new configuration. I had a child who had ADAH disorder, who was sweet as can be, but even with his medication he was 2 hours or more falling alseep, fidgiting and talking to himself the entire time, but rarely asking if he could get up. There were dogs and cats and Mr Rodgers when the kids were awake, and shows like The Outer Limits when they were in bed. When asked I requested 50 cents/hour, and I usually got at least 75 cents an hour, with some of the larger families and really, really horrowshow kids giving me more. One New Year’s Eve I babysat two average kids even though the grandmother was there. She was nice, but I soon realized she was senile and not really in the here and now most of the time. I had quoted $1 per hour (holiday premium) and I got $5/ hour. Two for the kids, three for watching over granny and making sure she knew she was not alone. Boy, did I hit the nostalgia button, those were good years as my neighborhood was mostly young couples with the under-12 crowd. I sat nearly every evening. Sigh. Back to cleaning the kitchen…….