Babysitting is NOT Easy

By Hal Carey

Melissa is excited to start her first babysitting job. She does not see how anything could go wrong while she is watching the four year old twin boys living next door. After the kids go to sleep, she will be watching TV, eating snacks, and texting with friends. Or so she thinks. 

However, as the night goes on, Melissa face

• Language: English
• Publisher: Palmetto Publishing
• Release date: Sep 7, 2022
• ISBN: 9798822901391

Book preview

1

Today’s the Day

Finally! The day Melissa had been waiting for all week was finally here. Friday. Well, 5:43 AM Friday to be exact.

Usually, Melissa had trouble getting out of bed, even at 7:00, her normal wake-up time on a school day. Often, her mother would have to call her twice or her five year old sister, Stephanie, would have to jump on her bed before Melissa would eventually stir.

But this morning was different. This morning she was awake before her sister and even before her mom. And there was no way Melissa was going to be able to get back to sleep. So she got up and went to the bathroom to wash her face and brush her teeth, and then she pulled on her favorite jeans and a pink t-shirt. She tied her shoulder length brown hair into a ponytail and plopped down onto the living room couch.

That’s where her mom found her a half hour later. Melissa was holding in her lap a one-inch blue binder. And although she had quizzes in both Math and Spanish, the binder did not contain a thing on calculating the area of a circle or on the differences between the verbs ser and estar.

Instead, the seventh grader was looking at what she had been looking at constantly over the last few days. The binder listed the do’s and don’ts of babysitting and described plenty of scenarios that may arise when watching children.

Melissa’s mom, a perky woman in her early forties, entered the room, and said, Good morning, Honey. You’re up early today. Are you excited about tonight?

Excited? Excited? Of course, I’m excited! I have practically been counting down the minutes since last Saturday when Mrs. Hansen asked if I could babysit for her. This is why I was up at 5:43 this morning.

Yeah, I guess. Melissa answered.

Melissa had been surprised when her next door neighbor had asked if she was available on Friday night to watch the four year old twins, Tommy and Michael. Melissa was 13 now, but she had never babysat before, or had any job before for that matter. Though surprised, she was confident she could do the job. Melissa had taken the babysitting course offered by the Park and Rec the past summer, and obviously she knew the Hansens. They had moved next door to Melissa and her family right after the twins were born. And Michael and Tommy were always in her yard playing with Stephanie. They played soccer, blew bubbles, drew on the sidewalk with chalk, and rode their bikes with training wheels.

Melissa was startled out of her daydream when she heard her mom calling from the kitchen telling her that breakfast was ready. When Melissa arrived, she found waffles covered with maple syrup and glasses of milk. She also found her sister seated right next to her mother. Stephanie had a curly mop of orange hair and her face was covered with freckles. As always, she was talking non-stop, only taking breaks to fork in bites of waffle. This morning she was telling Mom about "Show and