The Babysitter Situation

Remember how I'd hired that babysitter, A, who I didn't like, and I emailed her to tell her I wouldn't be using her anymore?

At least she showed up for work.

I'm not saying that I regret letting her go, but I will say she had a much better work ethic than the sitter I replaced her with.

Of the two good (or so I thought) candidates I had, I chose the older one, the one who has a Master's in Education, the one who'd just stopped working as a nanny for an 11-month-old girl, the one who seemed more mature, touted herself as "reliable", and had more experience with the older infant and toddler age group.

I really thought I'd made the right choice.

K showed up the first two times she was supposed to. Neither day went fantastically - the first one, where I worked until midnight, was the very first night of Jordyn's shitty sleep of late. I arrived home at 12:30am to find K in Jordyn's room trying to get her back to sleep. I ended up taking over so she could leave, and Jordyn proceeded to stay awake until almost 4:30am. Her sleep had been so good for so long prior to that, that I was somewhat convinced that something weird had happened with K to have messed up her sleep (i.e. a really long, really late nap). Since her sleep has continued to be shitty, I doubt that was the case, but it still makes me wonder a little bit, since it was so coincidental that K's first day was the same day Jordyn's sleep started sucking. K's second day, she texted that she was running late because she'd had car trouble, and a friend was dropping her off so he could then take her car in. The same friend came back to pick her up. I only worked until 6pm that day, and when I arrived home, K and I sat down with my work schedule and figured out which days she would babysit through the rest of August.

But the next day she was supposed to come, a few days later, she didn't.

She didn't call. She didn't text. She didn't email. She simply didn't come.

And I've never heard from her since.

One theory is that something bad happened to her, and while I certainly do not *hope* that something bad happened, it really would be the only good excuse.

Except I found her facebook page, and while she's not that active on it, it looks like she commented on something one of her friends posted on it the same afternoon she was supposed to be babysitting for Jordyn, starting that morning. So I'm pretty sure she's alive and well, and not in a coma somewhere.

I really can't believe it. I mean, who does that?!? Who accepts an ongoing job, and schedules multiple days, and then just doesn't show up?! I could totally understand if she didn't like the job, felt like it wasn't a good fit - I mean, that had happened to me recently with A. So I get that. But she needed to have let me know in some way, shape, or form, not just leave me high and dry when I needed to go to work!! I was able to call my dad that day, and he was able to be at my house in about 15 minutes and take Jordyn for the day, so I luckily didn't have to call out of work.

I left her a message that morning when she was 20 minutes late, and another message that evening at 8pm. The second call, I even said I was worried about her, because she didn't seem like the kind of person who'd do this, and to please contact me to let me know she was ok, as well as to confirm that she wasn't going to be sitting for Jordyn anymore. She never returned either call. I contacted her through sittercity, which is where I'd found her, asking her what had happened, and letting her know that I found it extremely unprofessional to quit a job in the manner she had. And then I left her a bad review on the site. I don't want other parents to have the same experience I did.

And so, I'm back to being babysitter-less. And back to sleeping 2-3 nights a week at my parents' house, since they're currently doing all my childcare. It's saving me money, yes, but it's stressing me out, too. At the same time, I haven't made much effort to find a new sitter, for a couple of reasons. One, I'm not entirely sure what I'm looking for. Ideally, I'd like to find someone with a car and a reliable driving record, who could pick Jordyn up at my parents' house and bring her home for the evening/night, after my parents have Jordyn during the day. At least on my two long days of work, and then be here the whole time on my shorter day (but that still usually goes until midnight, it just starts later in the day). But that requires the person to be available every day of the week, since my schedule is so inconsistent.

And then there's the issue of... I'm applying for a new position, which, if I get it, my schedule - and therefore my childcare needs - will be completely different than they are now. So, I hesitate to hire a new sitter that may end up being short-term, but if I hire someone who's only looking for short-term, then I'll have to start all over again if I don't get the job. Sigh.

I'd also really like to find a childcare situation where Jordyn could be around other kids. She's very social, and engaging, and really enjoys being around other babies, and I think it would be good for her. I don't have the option of a childcare center, at least with my current position, but there's a woman who lives very close to me who runs a very small (2-3 kids) home daycare, and she specializes in working with people with unusual schedules. She's responded every time I've placed an ad on sittercity. She says she'd have Jordyn at her house during the day, and then would bring her home for bedtime and stay with her here until I got home. I'm not entirely sure how that would work, but it may be worth a try. Her other two kids right now are both younger than Jordyn, which may not be ideal, but anyway, I'm considering looking in to this option. But when I mentioned this to my mom, she said, "So we wouldn't have her at all??". Hmmm.

I'm also considering contacting the second of the two candidates, the one I didn't originally hire, when I hired K, to see if she's still interested. But I feel weird about that, and not sure what she'd think, since I passed her up the first time around.

So, as of now, I'm sticking with my parents doing all my childcare until I figure out what I want to do, and maybe until I know what's going to happen with the position I applied for.