I Am a Childcare Provider

I loved that movie as a child, but i digress. Today, as part of my continuing quest to be a benefit to mankind, I spent my evening babysitting for a friend. It was quite a delightful experience. The children were very cute and agreeable. I revisited my thirteen year old self by eating their food. (Why is it that other people's food is always more exciting then your own? I thought I wouldn't experience this since I'm now buying my own food, but nope.) Also an advantage of babysitting as adult--I had my laptop with me so i didn't have to fuss with a stranger's TV.

This is what I have to say about babies: when they are really wailing, it does in fact sound like "wahhhh" like it says on the comics. Also, they have serious lung power. I mean I have had a couple of good cries as an adult, but I could not have kept up that loud or that long. It was pretty amazing really. Luckily crying babies don't really upset me. But I did feel bad for the neighbors. The baby (it was her first time with a babysitter) became what we in the industry call "emotionally disregulated." Babies, you know, have not yet learned to manage their affect (emotions) and when they get really upset they literally cannot calm themselves down (some adults have this problem too). My psychology training came in useful, but did not entirely solve the problem. But luckily after about 40 minutes the baby cried itself out, just like I figured she would. And her sister told me that yes, sometimes she does cry like that when her mom is there, so I figured nothing serious was wrong. Like I said, it was a fun evening. I mean, it doesn't make me want to go out and get knocked up or anything, but I enjoyed myself.

I ask myself, how do 13 year-olds, who have no training in human development or the human psyche and who are typically emotionally weird put up with that? This is my ponderment of the day.