Babysitting While Parenting

For some reason, I thought it was possible for me to care for other children while caring for my own. After all, it's what many stay-at-home-mothers do to bring in some extra income for their families while remaining at home to care for their own.

I signed up for this gig when Madelyn was only 5 months old. Big mistake #1. She wasn't sowing her oats back then as she is now. Now, she is this little peanut who wants to badly to keep up with her brother.

We offered care to a family who was expecting their first child. The baby would be 5 months old by the time we would start sitting for him. Easy right? NO.

Little babies have so many needs. They need to be hugged and loved and nurtured. All of which are really hard to do with a three-year-old and a ten-month-old in the house. I found myself surrounded by crying much of the day simply because I could not spread myself enough to care for all of the children at the same time. Normally, a little crying is fine, but I felt I wasn't doing this little baby any justice holding his bottle with my chin while trying to feed Madelyn her lunch and keep Evan happy at the same time. I felt it just wasn't fair.

I told the family it was too overwhelming for me and that I wanted their child to have the best care possible. And, now I wonder what it's like for other home day care providers. Do they, too, listen to crying all day? Do they have a system for such situations where everyone needs something all at the same time?

I think I'll stick to part-time, per diem type babysitting for a while instead...