Today something embarassing happened to me.
In public.
Don't you hate when that happens?
So I had a full house here today, six kids including mine.
All things are running well, the kids are listening to me,
they are sleeping when they are suppose to,
eating what is on their plate,
it is actually quite wonderful.
So with all things going so smoothly, I think I got a bit 'cocky' in my child minding skills.
We decided to go on a late afternoon walk, slightly pushing it to pick up time but the kids were really excited to go. We were heading to the ball diamond where G.L Comba used to be.
The kids love it there and it is all fenced in so no worries on my end.
The oldest boy I babysit decided he wanted to scotter there, which was fine by me, he just had to remeber the rule: If he scotters, no asking jess to carry his scooter for him.
Anyways, back to the story, I had the youngest girl (one year) on my back in a backpack carrier, the twins in the stroller, the two boys walking and the oldest scottering. We were a train of people and the walk there was great. We got there, the kids ran around, we each had a cookie and we decided to head home for the mom's to pick up.
As we were walking home my girls decided that they wanted to walk.
Since the stroller was empty the three boys wanted to sit in the stroller.
Usually I would say no, but they were so good today I decided what the heck, if they wanted to all squeeze in the stroller (with the scooter) I would let them.
So off we go, finishing off our walk, and not far from home.
The boys, all our stuff and scooter in the stroller and twins walking along side me and the baby on my back.
We get to a street, not a crazy busy street but none the less a street.
I quickly decided what is my best bet here. I don't really have alot of options as I can't even squeeze the girls in the stroller since it is full to the brim.
I would usually sit them int he stroller to cross the road if I don't have enough hands to safely get them across.
So I decided to grab ahold of the girls hands in my one hand, and push the stroller in the second hand.
Risky, but here is where my cockiness kicks in.
All seems fine until Charlotte decides to sit down in the middle of the road and refuses to get up.
Chloe wants to keep going and I still am pushing the stroller, not alot of free hands to scoop Charlotte up and carry her across the road. I am slightly stuck for options!
I decide to let go of the stroller with my one hand, thinking I have the safety strap on my wrist like I usually do,but who forgot to put it on after putting the boys in the stroller?
This girl!
I forgot that I didn't have the safety strap on!
Now the stroller is rolling across the road and along the sidewalk and I have one little girl sitting in the road and another who has left my hand and is hightailing it to the sidewalk.
I honestly had no idea what to deal with first, so I quickly grabbed Charlotte, and ran to catch up to the stroller. Luckily I caught up fast enough for the boys not to notice, they just though we went for a little ride.
And thankfully Chloe made her way to the sidewalk and was chasing me all the way.
Did I mention I did all this with a one year old on my back?
Awful!
Embarrassing!
And to top it all off, two people that I know watched the whole thing occur.
They probably think I am a crazy babysitter!
So all evening I am thinking of how embarrassing this is and how I am a terrible babysitter for letting it happen, but I finally realized that is was an accident.
An awful one, but an honest ot goodness accident.
No one got hurt, I learned what not to do next time and all turned out ok.
It does not make me a terrible Child Care provider or person.
I make mistakes along the way, but with each one I learn from it.
It is like that with everyone.
We do embarrassing, stupid things and marinate about how idiotic of a person we are. We are our own worst enemy, making the situation much worse then it actually was.
but there is truly no use in that.
Move on.
Accept and learn.
It is the only way!
But I learned that there's a certain character that can be built from embarrassing yourself endlessly. If you can sit happy with embarrassment, there is not much else that can get to you
-Christain Bale
Much love,
Jessica
ps. I give you permission to laugh at my embarrassment. As I was writing it I realised that is sounds like a scene in an awful Jennifer Lopez comedy....If she ever did a movie about babysitting...
