Babysitting – Not Just For Teens

Okay fellow readers – I’m about to get real explainy here. As we all know, I babysit. No, I’m not 12. But, a lot of people do ask me why I do it – why I dedicate hours outside of my well-paying, satisfying, and very full-time job, to caring for small, pooey little beings that on occasion, cry, throw-up, or poo.

Here is why:

1. I like it. Babysitting is fun. My mom used to administrate child care centres, so I pretty much grew up in day care. After I was old enough to not need to go anymore, at around the age of 10 or 11, I began to help out after school or in the summer, and would watch kids in the infant or toddler room. I’m an only child, so I’ve never felt like I had to take care of kids or anything – it’s always been fun. Kids are hilarious (and pooey), and they keep me entertained.
2. It’s super easy. Some people get freaked out with kids and think it’s a lot of work, but honestly, you’re just playing with them. Full-day gigs can be really, really tough, and a lot of work, but most babysitting jobs you’re just there for a few hours to play with the kids, get them ready for bed, and then you’re free to watch their cable TV, eat their grapes, and enjoy some time by yourself.
3. Oh my goodness man, the money! Babysitting can pay between $15-$20 an hour, and because it’s not crazy difficult, you’re basically making additional pocket money to play with some really cool kids toys (honestly, they have some sweet stuff now), and hang out. You go home, and you also sometimes have some really good jokes to share, or some golden lines like this one, courtesy of the four-year old I watched Friday night: “If my bum was my head, I would have poo coming out my mouth.” Me: “Yes, but you don’t have poo in your mouth.” Kid: “No, but sometimes throw-up, and throw-up is brown.”

Month in Review: Monies Monies Monies

What up friends? April is over (thank goodness), and it’s time to look back on monies made and monies spent. Actually, let’s not look at the money we don’t have. It’s gone, gone like my favorite pair of expensive boots that ate pavement this month. RIP boots. You were awesome.

 

Again, April wasn’t the best month for me in terms of cold hard cash. My babysitting has not been in high demand, I guess since there’s no rad parties for parents to go to. He, however, has been working some awesome overtime, so he’s doing alright.

So, I just had a look at our handy income tracker Google doc, and I only added $85 bucks to my amount in April! Pathetic. Thankfully, GST refunds came in, so that counted. You know, I have no idea how GST income works. Is it like a tax refund, and the GST you spend comes back to you? Man, that’s so embarrassing. He is probably going to make fun of me a lot for that comment. Ohhh well.

I did make $4 (or rather, $3.98) in Frito-Lay coupons. I was at work about to eat a small bag of Ruffles All-Dressed chips, when I noticed that before I opened the bag, it was super light. Lighter than it should be – alarming light even. So I planned on writing a letter to the company in hopes they would send me a life-time supply of Ruffles All-Dressed chips. Our production guy at work even weighed the bag for me, which was super nice, and totally worth it, since it only weighed 14g and a normal bag is supposed to weight 28g. That’s half the g’s friends! So I mailed it in, and they sent me back two coupons for $1.99 each off Frito-Lay products. I can’t even use them together.

Anyways, back to the money. I’m currently at 29% of the $7,000 goal, while He is at 29% as well. If you go into three digits though, I’m winning. Actually, wait! I totally just remembered I got a small bonus at work for a client program yesterday! Redid the math and I’m sitting nice at 31.56%. Killer!

 

Thought of the Day: Shark Facts

I was babysitting the other night and before bed, this kid wanted to read this book, something like “Sharks and Other Underwater Monsters.” It was crazy! It had a huge list of all these different kinds of sharks, eels, crustaceans, everything underwater that is scary. There were about 200 different kinds of beasts mentioned. And the kid (4 years old) could honestly list about 180 of them just by looking. After he went to sleep, I immediately grabbed that bad boy.

Here are some shark facts I stole from the internet:

• Sharks can smell one drop of blood in a million drops of water
• Sharks have been around for about 400 million years – long before dinosaurs even existed
• Some sharks can unhinge their jaw almost like a snake, allowing them to rip off flesh easier
• There is a kind of shark that can still live after you cut its head off – so it can still bite you
• Some species of sharks were only discovered in the last 20 years, since they live so deep in the ocean
• The Sand Tiger Shark where the babies inside will often eat each other in the womb – these sharks are surprisingly fairly docile once they emerge from the mother’s womb
• There is a species of shark that has a glowing light at the end of its tail – not much is known about this: is it to lure fish to it to eat them? It is a protection system? Is it a defense mechanism?
• When a shark eats food that it can’t digest (like a turtle shell or tin can), it can vomit by thrusting its stomach out its mouth then pulling it back in
• Even though almost equal numbers of men and women spend time in the ocean, no one knows why sharks seem to prefer to attack men. In fact, nearly 90% of shark attacks have happened to men

For more shark facts, you’ll have to use Google them yourself. In the meantime, look at these scary pictures!

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Weekends That Don’t Feel Like Weekends

Weekends are so contradicting. They’re supposed to be your time off from work, relaxing and filled with nothing.

Not the case this weekend.

First thing on our To Do list was to donate blood. Off we trekked to the Bay & Bloor Canadian Blood Services location. We’ve mentioned this before I believe, but the Bay & Bloor location has got to be the best blood donor clinic we’ve ever been to. Comfortable, reclining chairs, tv, music… it’s almost like relaxing at home, except for the needle sticking out of your arm, obvi.

They also have the most bitchin’ snacks. There’s a Starbucks downstairs that provides them with the leftover snacks from the day before, we’re guessing, so there’s always a nice assortment of still-delicious cinnamon buns, croissants, cookies and pumpkin scones. Thirsty? Would you like apple, mango, or orange juice? Still hungry? Oh please, take a Bits N Bites for the road. Don’t mind if I do…

This was my 8th time donating blood, and His 4th. The guy sitting next to us was up to 25, and he had a special card! I’m jealous.

Normally donating blood doesn’t make me feel any different. But for whatever reason when we left the clinic, I felt extremely crappy. Our plan was to walk up to Type Books in Forest Hill, since they had three new Penguin classics in for me. We did end up walking there, but I had to rest a few times, which is a bit pathetic.

Sidebar: I have to put a good word in here again for Type Books. Every time we go in they’re super nice, and have all my books put aside for me. I actually called them when I got home to thank the woman for being so helpful trying to get me these books, etc. She said that the phone call actually made her day, and they don’t hear that very often. It’s funny how something that’s so effortless on my part can have such a great reaction in someone else. I remember from my retail/waitressing days the smallest comment like that could have such a huge effect on your day. Mental note: express thanks to these people more often.

After the Type Books trek, we had planned to go skating, but I was way too tired. We’ve put it off twice this week, I’m really hoping we get to go soon.

Did some babysitting last night for some cute kids – one was wearing these skeleton pajamas, hilarious. I wish I had skeleton pajamas.

After the sitting it was off to BeerProv!

Since BeerProv has always been on Monday nights, we haven’t really been able to go so far – so we were really looking forward to hitting the scene now that it’s on a Saturday.

BeerProv is essentially Whose Line Is It Anyways – but with drinking. Man, we were impressed. Some of these comedians were just hilarious. What I love about improv, is sometimes the worst lines and sketches turn out to be the best, just because they’re so terrible. Our friend Jim was an awesome host, and we were very impressed. We’ll definitely be back next time it’s on, and we think you should go too!