I think some of you have met my manny…

That’s my dad and he helps me with the kids four days a week.

I also have a part-time babysitter who is a teacher and is going back to school. So sadly this is her last week.  She’s a very sweet, 25 year-old who recently got married. I’m pretty sure the experience of taking care of my four children for the last few months has significantly delayed her plans to start a family.

So we are back to interviewing potential babysitters. I don’t think of these so much as interviews but rather 20 minutes of free child care. “Hi. Great to meet you. Come in. Sit down. Hold a baby. Tell us a little about yourself.”

I really liked the first girl we interviewed. But Rick wasn’t so sure.

During the interview, Dylan hurt her foot and the babysitter successfully pinpointed the culprit – picking up a small, spinning top off the ground. Yahoo! We found a good sitter. Safety is her number one concern. But then Rick noticed that she inexplicably put it back on the carpet, in the same spot with the sharp end up. Interesting move during a job interview.

Maybe she thinks we keep it in the middle of the carpet and she was just trying to be tidy and put it away?

Maybe she was nervous and didn’t realize what she was doing?

Maybe she was drunk. Although admittedly, not a great sign either.

We decided to check her references anyway. Because perhaps she would have glowing references, we’d hire her, she’d be wonderful and we’d laugh about the “spinning top” incident for years.

Except she never sent those references or followed up with us again.

Apparently, we scared her off in one interview.

mama bird notes:

8th Continent Soy Milk was one of our amazing sponsors at The Mouthy Housewives party at BlogHer 2010. And now they are having a super cool contest called Nice Job, Mom.

All you have to do is submit your less-than-perfect parent moment (in written or video form) and you can win a room makeover or a fabulous trip. How easy is that?!

For example, you can submit how you spilled cereal all over your daughter’s head when she was in the Bjorn or how you got half way to the playground and realized no one was wearing any shoes or how you attempted to pull a tick out of your son’s head only to realize it was just schmutz in his hair. Choose one of mine or come up with your own!

So head on over to Nice Job, Mom and enter. Right now. Do it right now.  Please?  I’ll make you an 8th Continent soy milk smoothie. I promise. Thank you.

If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to my RSS feed!