What a day
It's almost one AM and I've only just gotten home from the BIGGEST day of babysitting EVER! I arrived at Brad and Annita's at the requested hour of 7am to find that Ellie (my 6 year old charge for the day) wasn't even home yet, she had been at a friends house and was being dropped off soon. So I made myself a coffee and sat out on the verandah and admired the amazing view of Cottesloe beach. My mind boggles at what this huge house with ocean views must cost!
Ellie eventually got home and was devastated to find out she wouldn't have time for her usual Sunday morning routine of Surf Life savers. This is the point at which the whinging started, and didn't cease for quite some time.
Annita finally finished doing her face and made her way out the door with instructions for me to await Brad's call for details for the rest of the day.
Ellie and I spent our morning eating breakfast, watching cartoons, having me french braid her hair (I think this skill gets me more babysitting gigs than anything else, little girls love it!), playing Barbies, having me read her books, paddling in the pool, playing in the park and at one point we even had a nap on the couch together! The phone finally rang, it was Brad (Ellie's Dad) to tell me a car was coming for us at 1pm.
It took me a little while to convince Ellie than going totally nude bar a pair of gumboots probably wouldn't be socially acceptable at Sandleford. So pretty sun dress donned, with braids, hat, about a liter of sunscreen (totally unforgivable in the babysitting world to let peoples kids get burnt), and her most favourite Barbie sandals that only took me an hour to find both of, we finally set off for 'A Day on the Green'. It's quite nice being chauffeur driven in a Mercedes!
We arrived at the ticket station to collect our 'all access' VIP passes, and made our way in to find Brad. I called him and he was backstage, he came to find us, then took us backstage with him to watch the rest of Alex Lloyd from the wings which was wicked. I'm not a huge Alex Lloyd fan, but it was great none the less. Brad tried to explain to Ellie a bit about 'what Daddy's job is'. She wasn't too interested, so he gave up and directed us to the VIP tent for some food. What a spread they had too! The two of us wasted no time in getting a nice plateful each of yummy lunch time snacks. Most of the people in the VIP tent were half cut. It's always interesting to watch drunk people in the middle of the day when you're totally sober!
We then checked out the kids area which consisted of face painting, balloon animals, bouncy castles and the like. A few hours spent there, then back to the VIP tent and more 'Daddy time' with Brad. Brad's a really lovely guy and I feel for him a bit. He doesn't seem to get much time to spend with Ellie working so hard all the time. Today was the first time all week he had seen her. But then I guess if you want a multimillion dollar house in Cottesloe that's what you have to do.
Whilst getting dessert and coffee we just happened to bump into Tim Freedman(sp?) from the Whitlams. That was kinda surreal. And well the rest of the arvo was a blur. We finally had another car pick us up to go home at 7pm. After physically dragging Ellie away from her Mother (God I hate having to do that), we got in the car where she then threw a tantrum. I think it was the whole very tired and too much sugar combo that did it. We got back to the house, it took me an hour to get her to sleep due to the constant 'I want Mummy's. As hard work as the tantrums can be, she can be a beautiful child, and went to sleep hugging my hand cause she didn't want me to go. After that I sat and stared at foxtel till they got back at 12.30am. Brad gave me a big wad of cash, was obviously very appreciative as always and sent me on my way. I'm so tired I don't even know how much it is actually.
Now for sleep zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz
posted by Milly @ 8:49 AM
4 Comments
4 Comments:
I have no compassion for people that complain about not having time with kids or time in general or whatever and go home in their merc to their huge house and have people babysit their kids. They may be nice people, I'm sure they are, but it's about priorities...
As for the rest sounds like a wicked day, you seem to be enjoying the kiddly wink :)
Aaron: So you think that in all your years of being a parent (once you shack up with your future wife), you won't require the services of a baby sitter ever?
What about the part where the father might be trying to provide a wonderful life for his child?
I don't think realistically both parents can retire the day their child is born, and I don't think it's unreasonable to expect that they might be babysat every now and again.
Putting them in day care every day from 7am til 6pm, is a totally different matter. But the odd session of babysitting, even if it's a regular occurrence is something that every one goes through as a child.
Of course the child comes first, but life can be a bit more complicated than just that.
Being well off means that Annita doesn't have to work and so can spend a lot of time with Ellie which is nice for her, and then with Brad atleast he makes every effort to see her.
I know both Brad and Annita come from humble backgrounds, they have both worked hard to get where they are now, and I'm almost certain they do it all so Ellie has the childhood they never had.
Brad isn't always away like that, he just had a huge week. Plus I don't babysit for them that often. Also I've known Ellie since she was a baby, so she loves me and enjoy spending time with me for a change from her Mum and Dad.
I think they have their priorities all in the right places.
I said I have no sympathy... if you work those hours and then complain that you don't get the time that's something you can change. I see the reasons why and all that and people have different priorities.
Of course I'll require a baby sitter, I wasn't really having a go at the baby sitting it's just that I realise people are makign a trade off and shouldn't complain.
I think people took what I said wrongly...
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