Alright, lets take a break from the doom and gloom around here and I'll rant about something different today. In our cul-de-sac neighborhood there are a group of 5 moms (and their kids) that hang out together in the afternoons. We all get along fine and its so nice to have people to sit outside and chat with while we let the kids play. I genuinely like all of these women- despite my rant. However, there is one neighbor Amy, that I feel gets taken advantage of. Amy is fantastic with kids, she just has the knack for it-- she would make a phenomenal school teacher. Because of this she often gets tasked with "would you mind watching the kids for a bit?" or "Could I just leave them with you while I run an errand?" And on the one hand, it is worth mentioning that one of the neighbors guilty of this is on her own-- her husband has been in Iraq for the last 6 months so I know its not like she has it easy. The other neighbor who is guilty of this, Kate, has an 18 month old and is pregnant with her second. She has been feeling really crummy and her husband just got back two days ago after being gone for about 4 weeks. I swear that every time I turn around Amy is watching Kate's son. Im not sure if Amy is just doing this because she wants to or because she is being asked to. I realize its really none of my concern and I probably should butt out.
However. Last night I was at the park with my son and Amy and her girls came out to play. Kate had a babysitter show up (she and her husband had a party to go to) and a few minutes later turned the baby sitter away for coming too early. Then, here's the part that floored me, she opens her window and asks if we will watch her son while she gets ready for her party. DID SHE NOT JUST TURN THE BABYSITTER AWAY?
When I have something I need to get ready for, and we are having a sitter come that night (especially if my husband isn't home at the time) I intentionally have the sitter come early so that I can get ready without having to supervise and entertain a toddler. I was totally baffled as to whether she was just being cheap and not wanting to spend an extra $3 to have the sitter come early or if she was just totally rude and figured we should watch her kid for her.
Is it just me or was that totally tacky? Part of me wanted to say something to Amy and then the other part of me figured it wasn't my place. Part of me wanted to say something to Kate and then the other part of me figured it wasn't worth creating hard feelings over. What would you have done?
1 comment:
Ick. That sounds awful.
I don't have kids so I don't know what it's like exactly -- but I have been a babysitter a million times over. I can't believe she turned the babysitter away - how horrible! That babysitter was probably looking forward to the night and the money from that job - and most likely said no to other potential plans/babysitting jobs in order to watch her kids. Ugh, that bothers me.
But as for if you shuld say something - I would just try to stay out of it. I know it sucks to watch, but you dont want to be "that" neighbor who gets into other people's business too much!
Doesn't make it suck any less!
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