Babysitter Drama

Well, now that I've built the babysitter story up for days...here it is...hope you're not disappointed! : )

My grandparents decided it was time to go back home and we have been doing fine without them. So far, no hectic days and neither of us have missed a minute of a normally scheduled workday. But I can imagine in the future there will be a day where Charlie needs to go in early for some mandatory meeting or things at Chase are crazy and I need to stay and take care of something or we'd just like to go out for a dinner w/o packing the whole house - so of course we'd like a back up plan. A friend of mine who is moving away took her baby to an older lady named Mrs. Ginger. I thought this may be the best plan. Besides, when I called Mrs. Ginger she was sure to mention the video cameras she had and made a point of explaining that SHE would be interviewing US (not vice versa). I was to bring myself, my husband and my baby and arrive at 11 am sharp on Saturday morning the 13th. My assumption was that she must be the best if she is doing the interviewing!

That Saturday morning came and I nagged Charlie for awhile until he finally got up to get ready. I made him take a shower and put some 'church clothes' on and help me get Avery ready. Just as I was rushing to make sure we weren't late, I decided I'd call to let her know we were on the way. She says "Oh dear, hold on a moment, let me put this baby on the dryer." She goes on to explain that she keeps this particular baby all weekend long and that she was painting her house and if we could 'stand the fumes' we could come. (Don't ask me why a baby was put on a dryer for that? lol) Ya know when you get the feeling you're really not invited, but they're obligated? That's the feeling I got. I offered to reschedule and she was happy to accept. So the next Saturday came, but before we even got to it, we had the death in the family and the funeral was at the exact time of the appointment...not to mention it was in Vidalia. So, once again, we rescheduled.

On Tuesday, Avery has her weekly therapy session with a nice lady named Denise. I mentioned to her that we were going to meet 'some lady named Mrs. Ginger' and she immediately asked, "OMG off of Forsythe???" (which is where she lives) and I said, "Yep! Thats her!" She quickly told me not to bring Avery to 'that woman'. Apparently she had done therapy in her house with 2 year old twins a year or so ago and she said that Ginger would just let babies scream the entire hour she was there. The old hag would make comments like, "That baby is too spoiled" and "His mama holds him too much at home" and "You just have to make them learn not to cry!" Denise said it was ridiculous. She also said she had no idea there was a whole other room of toddlers in the back and that she never saw her husband, who is supposed to help. She went on to say that her friend had her little boy there and one day, out of the blue, Mrs. Ginger's hired helper called her house and said "Do not bring your little boy back to daycare." The mother, of course alarmed, went by to view the tapes from the video cameras. Unfortunately, Mrs. Ginger explained, the tapes must've ran out and she 'forgot to replace them' for the entire week. Hmmm....

If that isn't enough, Mrs. Ginger made it clear to me that she does not keep any baby past 18 months. I didn't think anything of it, just figured they get into too much and are a handful. Well, they also start talking very well after 18 months. As I mentioned earlier, Denise was doing therapy at Ginger's house with 2 TWO YEAR OLDS. They were twins. Guess what type of therapy? They weren't talking yet. I guess Mrs. Ginger could make an exception for two quiet kids. As soon as they begin to talk, they were 'graduated' to a daycare center where Ginger sends all of the other lil' talkers.

As you can imagine, I called Mrs. Ginger to cancel. I was interested to hear how she handled it, but all I heard was a strange old man's voice saying "You've reached 3**-2641, the place where we have lots and LOTS of FUN! Leave a message after the beep." So I politely declined the Saturday meeting and told her we were making 'other arrangements.'

Currently, those 'arrangements' are to beg Facebookers, Myspacers and Bloggers to help me find someone I know in Monroe who may be interested in stopping by every once in a while when needed. I think the perfect candidate is a college student from Vidalia, who I know, that can come on short notice for a few hours, a few times a month . The days and hours would vary and I'm willing to pay any amount per hour. If you can think of ANYONE, please leave a comment!

All of this said, I want to point out what a blessing it is that God provided both Charlie and I a job that is flexible. We actually don't "need" anyone, it would just be better to have a back up plan. Before I worked for the Admin group at Chase, I was a phone rep and there is NO WAY I would be able to have this schedule. Before Charlie worked at Accent he worked at Chase is there is NO WAY he could've kept Avery most of the day. Charlie started his new job the day Avery came home from the hospital, and I got my wonderful job in Decemeber. It's just amazing how God is always looking ahead to prepare you exactly the way that is needed. Another thing, if I wouldn't have called Ginger before we left the house that first Saturday - or if she would've asked us to come on - Avery would have been to her house a couple of times by now. I had a dentist appt and needed to schedule another. But God held us off just long enough to get his warning from Denise. Amazing, isn't it?