This morning I helped out a friend of mine by watching her 7 month old baby while she went to some seminar for her job. I am toying with the idea of helping her out one day a week by watching her two little girls (the baby and a 3 year old) while Abby and her oldest are at school and she is at work. Part of me is into it- I figure I can stay home and do laundry while Nora plays with the 3 year old and the baby does her baby thing. In my mind it will be idyllic, but I am afraid the reality will make me want to kill myself.
So anyway, today we did a test run with just the baby. Abby is way into helping out to feed the baby and diaper the baby and play with the baby, but I had forgotten how irritating her "baby" voice can be. It is this high pitched whisper that she uses to repeat the same 5 phrases about how cute the baby is and how little the baby is and so on. It is awful. Nora on the other hand was not so into the baby. She wailed when I put the baby down in 'her' crib. She tried to push her off my lap when I was giving the baby a bottle. Just when I was starting to fear that Nora was going to be scarred for life by this experience she did the sweetest thing. The baby was getting up from her nap and I was changing her diaper (with some help) and Nora disappeared. I could hear her, but couldn't see her. I finished what I was doing and then went to look for her. She started crying at one point and I found her on the stairs trying to bring the Bumbo seat up from the basement. She looked at me and said "beebee" and made em carry the seat up for the baby.
Cute right?
So this experiment had its highs and lows. My first priority will always be with my children and I am wondering if this is something Eleanor will get over or if this turf war between her and the baby will scar her for life and the pittance I make doing this will not even come close to what it will cost in therapy for her in 15 years.
Thoughts?
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2 comments:
that is terribly cute about the bumbo...
i think (for what it's worth) that it will probably work out. nora will realize that it's time limited (one day a week) and adjust. (by the way, one of my relatives has the *most* annoying baby voice i've ever heard and it grates every time we see her!)
perhaps you could agree just for a a few weeks, and if nora hasn't settled into it after a couple weeks you could scratch the idea.
i also think it's terribly sweet of you to want to help out. amazing really...
Nora bringing up the bumbo seat is really adorable.
I think it will probably be ok. Eleanor's jealousy about the other kids in my daycare has almost completely dissipated. She used to push the babies off my lap too. Now she hardly notices.
I agree with indie mama that a trial run might be best. Give it a few weeks and see how Nora is doing.
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