Babysitter Blues



If Only Cinderella Were Available...



People have been asking, "Are you getting settled?" And I can't answer yes.

Most of the pieces are in place. The boxes are gone. The appliances are installed. The kids have made friends. Playdates have even been held and led to more playdates. It's beginning to feel like home, but one key component is missing.

We haven't found our babysitter, our personal Mary Poppins.

Steve and I crave our date nights like fresh air. Throughout the mayhem of family life, between coaxing Jack to eat one more bite of chicken and explaining to Juliette that shoes really are not optional, we dream of our Saturday nights together, just the two of us for a few hours, free of the three little tyrants we created. We've been committed to that child-free time ever since Bella was six weeks old and we celebrated her birth with a long fondue dinner.

Ever since those early days of parenthood, our babysitters have been a part of our family. We've gotten to know these young women, watched them grow as they watched our children grow. And we've stayed in touch with them, woven them in the fabric of our family, as they moved on to adulthood, to "real" jobs, engagements, and life beyond babysitting. Carlene became a nurse. Gina got engaged. And Rachel, our first babysitter ever, became a mom herself last year. When I saw the pictures of her tiny little girl with her gorgeous brown eyes, I felt as moved as if one of my sisters had given birth.

Before I even got to Chicago, I started searching for our new babysitter. And in the two months we've been here, we've had quite a few, but we haven't found THE ONE. Instead, we've had a spectacularly bad run:

• One high school girl let Juliette use the dishwasher door as a trampoline. She let her jump on it until it came unhinged and slid out from under the counter.
• Another one seemed to be surgically attached to her cell phone. She texted non-stop for 2 hours, regardless of whether I was talking to her, or whether surrounded by Barbies.
• A third one called to cancel on a Saturday night, fifteen minutes after she was supposed to arrive. I actually cried when I read that text and walked up the stairs to wash off my make-up.
• The worst was this Monday. I found her napping so soundly at 2PM that I had to shake her awake. I looked away as she wiped the drool from her chin before escorting her to the door.

So when people ask if we're all settled in, I have to answer, "No. Not completely." We're still searching for THE ONE, date night by date night, we're looking for our next babysitter. And when we find her, we'll finally be settled.