Friday, December 09, 2005
Babysitting Angst
Tonight is my firm's "holiday" (i.e., Christmas) party, and Shelly and I are excited to go. But it means that for the first time, Ellie is going to spend the whole evening with a babysitter.
True, we had our parents watch her from time to time while we went out and rand errands or even went to the temple, but somehow this feels different because it's an evening-long thing, and it's not family. We're dropping her off with a couple from church.
What has surprised me is that as I've mentioned our babysitting virginity to co-workers the past couple of days, they've acted like I should be all concerned and scared and nervous.
"I hope you really know and love and trust the person you're dropping her off with." "You must have all the emergency numbers and everything ready--did you give them the number of the hotel [where the party is] in case your cell phones don't work?" "You must be nervous out of your mind."
No.
I feel fine. Shelly (as far as I know) feels fine. We've known this couple for a few months now. They're a nice Mormon couple just like us, except without kids. I'm sure they'll take good care of Ellie. She's not hard to take care of. I'm perfectly confident that when we return tonight Ellie will not only be happy and healthy, she'll also probably be fast asleep. She's still too young to care if she's with her parents or not.
So sue me if I'm not concerned enough about our maiden voyage of babysitting. There's just no angst here. I'm looking forward to a fun party, and when we get home, I'll snuggle my baby and put her to bed. Life goes on.
True, we had our parents watch her from time to time while we went out and rand errands or even went to the temple, but somehow this feels different because it's an evening-long thing, and it's not family. We're dropping her off with a couple from church.
What has surprised me is that as I've mentioned our babysitting virginity to co-workers the past couple of days, they've acted like I should be all concerned and scared and nervous.
"I hope you really know and love and trust the person you're dropping her off with." "You must have all the emergency numbers and everything ready--did you give them the number of the hotel [where the party is] in case your cell phones don't work?" "You must be nervous out of your mind."
No.
I feel fine. Shelly (as far as I know) feels fine. We've known this couple for a few months now. They're a nice Mormon couple just like us, except without kids. I'm sure they'll take good care of Ellie. She's not hard to take care of. I'm perfectly confident that when we return tonight Ellie will not only be happy and healthy, she'll also probably be fast asleep. She's still too young to care if she's with her parents or not.
So sue me if I'm not concerned enough about our maiden voyage of babysitting. There's just no angst here. I'm looking forward to a fun party, and when we get home, I'll snuggle my baby and put her to bed. Life goes on.
Comments:
The crazy thing about being a parent is that you can't wait to have a little time to yourself, then, when you do get it, you miss the little buggers after about 5 minutes!
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