I am notoriously bad at "people math" - that is, if we have one guest over I suddenly don't know how many plates to set out for dinner. So you can imagine the fact that today starting at about 6:30 AM I'm taking four extra children (three from one friend for most of the day; a regular Tuesday three-hour gig with my friend's daughter E.) and farming out one of my own children (Suse, to school) means that at this very moment I'm not sure how many children I'm taking care of (OK, it's four now since E. just left).

But I also knew the real dealbreaker would be the 9 month old. I can handle a passel of toddler / preschoolers pretty good but babies - the care of a baby immediately sets you back to this odd formula that is both simple but easily missed. Baby crying inconsolably? You try everything and then you go back to the check-the-diaper and try-to-feed-it ritual, even if you just changed a diaper, even if you just fed them. What's amazing is how much diaper you change; I forgot about that (two Poo Specials by 8 AM). You also pray for a nap (literally, honest-to-God pray) and tell yourself you'll rest while they nap but then don't.

Five minutes ago I finally got the rather sad, very full, completely dry baby sporting a large, quarter-shaped shiny spot on his forehead from either a burn or rug-burn (yes, and I wish I could say I was joking but he did get injured on my watch - I think I'll spend the afternoon finding and kicking puppies, just to make myself feel better). And don't think little baby T. isn't surrounded by as many blanket retaining walls as I could muster! The older three are playing in the living room nicely, I'm listening to Elvis and about to wash dishes - again (I've made ten meals so far today! not including the breakfast enchiladas I scarfed for myself). Most of the way through my shift and we're all safe and (relatively) sound.

The oldest four in my crew are phenomenally well-behaved, sweet children which goes a long way to making the day an enjoyable one. Even amongst the phenomenal task of dressing six people for a walk in our cold sunshine we get these great teaching moments: before embarking for a treasured destination I ask these four, "What happens if we get walking and T. starts crying and crying and crying?" A., the oldest in my flock today says, "We'll stop to nurse." Four pairs of child's eyes beam their headlights on me in silent query and I laugh and say, "Do you think I can do that?" "No but look," says A., "You trick T. by putting him against you like this and then give him his binkee." "You know, that is a great idea," I tell her, "but it doesn't work - it actually makes him mad. Great thinking though!" How smart are these wee ones?

People that do what I do every day for a job? They deserve more compensation than they get paid, and a lot more accolades for their work. P.S. it took me a full ten seconds to think of the word "accolades" because having a baby also makes you temporarily mentally disabled, apparently when you're not even sporting nursing hormones.

Labels: babysitting, chaos, paying gig