Job Experience — Part I

01 Aug 2007 5 Comments

by rjlight in career, having kids, Humor, Motherhood

I am going to start a series of posts about my former jobs. My nephew (who is only 4 years younger) likes to tease me about the different jobs I’ve held. I mentioned in another post my police academy ambition. Now, I will actually share some lessons learned and moments from my eclectic job life–because I think I’m a celebrity and you would like to know these things.

My first paying job was a typical first job — babysitting. Since I am the youngest of eight kids, I was the babysitter for many of my nieces and nephews. I actually started babysitting when I was in the 5th grade. I can’t imagine my oldest son babysitting right now. I was either more mature than that average 5th grader, or my sister was desperate to get out of the house.

As I got a bit older I started to babysit for other people as well. Now with my three kids, I wish I was around to babysit my kids now. That was confusing. My point being–I would like to have a dependable babysitter for my kids now at the rate I got paid. I was paid 50 cents per kid per hour. Now, babysitters charge about $10 an hour for one child!

Lessons learned from babysitter positions:

• When a pea gets stuck in a child’s nose, don’t panic, just hand them a tissue and tell them to blow real hard
• It is easy to get a kid to laugh, but difficult to get them to stop laughing
• Kids always puke on hard-to-wash surfaces

  Perks of the job:

• Jello Pudding Pops — not in stores anymore 
• Popcorn
• Pizza
• Water skiing lessons
• Jet ski rides

Would I do this job again?

Not for 50 cents an hour per kid, no I do it now for free!