Babysitting with a Twist

Unusual Charges

Saturday night arrives and i'm babysitting. It's a great family - three boys (but one was away this time) and just around the corner, but the kids really are just the strangest babysitting charges i've ever had! I arrive and one of the eldest boy isn't home yet, so the parents and i chat about school for forty minutes until he gets home. The parents were somewhat panicked, calling him every five minutes. You see, he was very unconvincingly saying that he was only five minutes away - but this was completely undermined by the fact that he wasn't actually getting home! Finally, he arrived and his parents left. Only then did i find that he'd actually been visiting his 'she's-not-my-girlfriend' girl friend in BROMPTON! The little bugger had caught a hell of a lucky break; his parents had been this close to calling the girls parents, but had decided that there was no way he could have gone all the way to Brompton - little did they know!

We settled in to watch tv, the littlest one not being too well and going to bed early. The eldest, henceforth dubbed 'OnlyThirteen' (OT), spent the time on the phone to this girl, so i had the place ot myself. Inbetween phone calls OT'd come and sit with me and inevitably turned the conversation to sex. Talk about a one track mind. Eventually, he'd wandered off again and i went to find him, to put him to bed. However, the house was huge and i couldn't find him! There were no lights on, so i was opening doors and looking for him. Finally, from a darkened room i hear a mumbled 'sup?' - and i open the door to find the boy half naked under his covers, in the dark, on the phone to this girl, talking about... well, things that aren't suitable for a thirteen year old to talk about! While he initially pretends he's not on the phone, i'm only halfway down the hall before i can hear a whispered 'she's gone'. Then, like the responsible babysitter that i am, i march back into the room and demand him to get the hell off the phone - which he grudingingly did, obviously shocked into submission by his semi-insane babysitter.

I then spent the next hour and a half sitting on his bed, chatting, because if i left he was going to call her back! And, sorry if i'm just strange, but i wasn't having him get up to that kind of mischief when he was thirteen and while i was babysitting! So, we spent an hour talking - with the boy telling me faaaaar too much about his sex life (which, by the way, is insane for a child his age! -- yes, i am naieve at times). AND, i got called frigid by a thirteen year old. Not only was that incredibly depressing, but also incredibly strange!! Around midnight, his parents got home and he quickly flipped off the light and i scampered back to the living room - seeing as he was meant to be in bed an hour ago. Apparently he was going to get right back on the phone, but as long as i wasn't babysitting anymore, i was willing to deal with that.

So, $50 later and a hell of an interesting evening learning about the ins and ours of teenage society as it stands today, i was done, and on my way to a party. Babysitting just isn't what it used to be! No more dolls, movies and playstation for this generation; it's all inappropriate phone calls, illicit trips to Brompton and attempts to fool the babysitter.

Annie