Saturday

The Babysitter & The Bubbles

Tonight we had a potluck dinner hosted by friends. The food was delicious and the conversation was fun--I love a night out with friends! 


Before we knew it (time flies when you're having fun, you know), we were on our way home to relieve the babysitter of her duties. We were calculating how much we would be paying her and decided to stop at the store to make the time equal the dollar bill we had available (is that silly?).


The Mr. mentioned how, since all of his family lived within a small distance radius, he never had a babysitter (outside of family) when he was a kid. He has lots of memories of spending time with grandparents but zero 'babysitter' memories. 


Since my family didn't ever have the luxury of grandparents/family *that* close to where we lived, we had babysitters/friends watch us as frequently as Mom & Dad went out. I remember a few babysitters more clearly than others, but one story sticks out among the files of memories.


I remember sitting on the couch & the babysitter asked me if the Dawn dishwashing liquid was to be used in the dishwasher. I really didn't pay much attention to the difference in dishwashing soaps, so I said something like: "Yup, that's the one" and she loaded it up. She did not have a dishwasher in her parent's home and did not realize the mistake she was about to make. 


Neither did I.


Within 30 minutes, there were white foamy bubbles gurgling out of the bottom of the dishwasher. I am sure it freaked her out, but I thought it was pretty cool. 


I can't remember details after that--I hope that my brothers & I pitched in to help relieve her stress (can you imagine!?) & clean up the mess. I do remember that I made a mental note of the difference of dish washing soaps so I would never make that mistake.


And it has stayed with me ever since.

Many a mistake have I made,
but never that one.


Did you have babysitters watch you when you were young?
Did you learn any valuable lessons from them?



1 comment:

Linda said...

i really only remember ...ONE babysitter when I was little. I mean ONE TIME. I remember my mom bring dressed up and looking pretty. and leaving.

I think more often maybe my mom took us and left us at someone's house, but I don't remember that per se.

I think it is likely that my parents didn't go out much with out us. Till we could sit ourselves. I do remember us being alone sometimes.