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November 19, 2004Answers:
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July 24, 2006Visitors:
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FrEe2bMe
alisonmarie
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Somnambulist
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advice
I'm eighteen years old and a high school graduate. I frequently help babysit my younger cousins (ages 2-12) for free or at a low price, and I am fairly used to the quirks, likes and dislikes, of behavior of my relatives.
A family friend has asked me to babysit their 7 (I think 7) year old son for about eight hours this Thursday (I write this on Sunday). I like the kid and he seems to hero-worship me, so I'm fairly certain I'm going to accept. However, he has a reputation for wild behavior, so I am going in guarded.
My problem is, while I've played with him and helped to babysit him before, I've never been the primary babysitter. While my mother will be home that day, I really want to be as self-sufficient as possible.
So, I was looking for some pointers for babysitting non-family. I'm thinking that I'll start him out on cartoons, since he'll be arriving at my house about seven, and break up the rest of the day with semi-healthy snacks every 2-3 hours, and blocks of toys, drawing, and video games. Movies if I get REALLY desperate.
If you could give me tips, crisis management techniques, and ideas for free or low-cost crafts and games, I would greatly appreciate it. Movie rental suggestions are also welcome, although my budget is very small, and my selection is limited to a single small store.
You probably should ask the parents/suggest to them that he bring some of the things that he likes. Boys are hard. Like he should bring a bike/scooter (if you don't have one he can borrow). I babysit twice a week for 6 hours, and he likes to have friends over. Maybe if there's a boy close to his age that you know well that could come over or hang out outside with you two. He also likes video games *oh and he's like 10-ish i think* Maybe borrow some car/video game books/magazines from a library, card games, board games, basketball, tennis*, soccer, jump rope. I think that's all i can think of! Good luck!
(Rating: 5) Good points. ^^ Luckily, my potential charge and I have a lot of things in common. We watch most of the same cartoons and we both like Transformers and Pokemon, so I should have no problem placating him. ^^ Being a tomboy is great. But thanks for the tips!