Category: Teen Topics
Hi all, I know there would come a time when I would have to baby sit my sister some day. I've watched her before, but it didn't work out. What do I do when I have to babysit again. I assume that since christmas is coming, I'll have to baby sit my sister while mom and dad are shopping. After the last incident, I'm quite nervous when it comes to watching my sister. Any tips? I have no knowledge of child care.
How old is your sister? If i remember right 8 or 9 so babysitting is not exactly a right term for her. She is not a baby any more. How long do you think you will have to look after her? Maybe watching a dvd together is a good idea or play a game such as cards or something on the computer. And what time of the day are you talking about? If it is during the day i guess you wouldn't have to worry about telling her to go to bed. What about if she is hungry? Can you make her something to eat? These are the things you will have to consider.
If you don't feel confortable looking after her maybe you can tell your parents but i think it is good that they trast you and let you look after her. If they give you this responsibility i think it is good.
I know it's good and I like responsibility, but the last time I watched her, she was very bossy, wanted to do what she wanted, didn't mind me a bit, and threatened to call and tell on me for being bossy. I've only did this once, and I'm not comfortable doing this. The worst part is I don't know where my sister is in the house half the time and I easily loose track of her. The big problem I have with telling my parents I am uncomfortable watching my sister is that I'm the most available one to watch her, and I can't do it bye myself. One thing I wonder about is what if I'm watching my sister, and an emergency occurs.
It sounds like a complicated situation. But talking to your parents it is the only way to fix this. By asking people here on the zone nothing can happen. The zone is not a magick place where things get fix. The only thing we can do is to give you some advice but it is up to you and what actions you take if things will get better.
I wish you luck.
I agree with everybody. Try telling your parents about {hat happened last time. Tell them your fears, and maybe they'll talk to your sister, and tell her that she needs to listen and cooperate with u. good luck
Jenna
to the original poster.
Whoever leaves a kid with you must be totally out of there mind
just my opinion
She's got to start being responsible sometime.
I've talked with my parents about this problem, but what if a time comes where I'm the only one that can watch my sister, for example, christmases and her birthday, when mom and dad are shopping.
It sounds like you lack self confidence.
Sure it's scary. Sure bad things could happen. But you are in control here. You never did say how old your sister is.
My ex wife and I raised two kids with both of us being blind. We were scared out of our minds, and we made a couple of trips to the emergency room, just like sighted parents. But, both kids lived without any lasting damages that I know of.
There are other parents raising kids here on the zone, and other zoners baby sitting siblings. I'll bet you Nikos babysits his younger brother and sister, but in his case I suspect he calls it spending time with them, not baby sitting.
It's up to you whether or not it's a chore or a pleasant experience.
Just my thoughts.
Bob
I'm sure it could be fun. Being the boss and everything.
You're quite wrong. My sister is the boss of me. She threatens to tell on me, even to call mom an tell her how bad I was. She even scolds me, like she's the babysitter.
Well I guess it's time to turn the tides so you can be the boss.
You still didn't tell us how old your sister is.
Don't you get it? She's manipulating you. All kids try to manipulate their environment and it sounds like your sister is no exception. I'd say she's doing a very good job.
Why not call her bluff.
If your parents expect you to baby sit, then they should back you. If they don't, then tell them "no deal".
Bob
Her sister's about nine, I think, and by that age, most nine-year-olds do get sassy when ti comes to obeying authority. Blbobbi's right in teling you that your sister's manipulating you. May I suggest having your parents put some hidden video cameras in the house?
Well, I do think She's manipulating me, but if she has to call mom, or tell on me, then I'm the one that gets in trouble.
Like what can she say about you that can get you in trouble? If you don't do anything wrong you don't have anything to worry about. And your parents should believe you not her because you are older otherwise i would asume that she is babysitting you instead.
Well, you are right. She shouldn't boss me around, but she treats me like a kid her age or younger. I didn't do anything wrong, but she tells on me because I don't want to play with her all the time.
And what kind of games does she want to play with you all the time that you don't want to do? If you suppose to look after her she shouldn't ask you to spend time with her. You should do this on your own anyway. How do you suppose to look after her if you want to spend time with your computer and her doing her own thing? In this way you wouldn't know exactly what's going on with her. It is better if she wants to be with you all the time when your parents are not at home.
Sorry but i am confuced with this situation.
Well, she likes barbies, which I'm not fond of. I really don't like playing with her. She's a kid, and I'm grown.
Even if you don't like what she likes you should still play with her and stop thinking of only you and what you want to do. It's just a part of bonding with siblings. At least pretend to be interested even if you're not.
I never got along with my sister since day 1, so I don't expect anything to change.
Not if you try and be nicer to her. Maybe she will return the favor.
And why you didn't get along with her since day one? What could she do to you when she was little? But maybe the reason behind all this is because when she was borned you lost some of the attention of your parents and you didn't like it.
Babysitting or whatever you want to call it is actually spending time with the person you want to look after even if you have to play with things you don't like.
And i think the topick title should change. You are not asking about baby sitting but how to get out of it lol. I hope i am wrong but that's how it sounds like.
Katie,
You enjoy spending time on the internet and all. There are millions of resources out there for ideas of things you can do with your sister while taking care of her. The holidays are coming up and this is a perfect time for so many easy crafts you could do together. I take care of kids for a living. One is 5 and the other is 9 which is the same age as your sister. Granted I wouldn't sit down and play with barbies by myself, but it is fun to do with the little girl I take care of. The kids also love writing emails and letters on my computer. They play computer games. You could play paper dolls. You can find patterns on the net and print them out. Your sister is old enough to color and cut them out. Then y'all could play with them. I could go on and on with ideas.
And I am a bit confused. You have said on boards that you still play with your dolls. Aren't barbies, dolls?
As for the emergency situations, your parents have cell phones. If an emergency happened, you'd call them just like any normal human being would do if they were watching children and something happened.
If you want some websites for ideas and activities, let me know. I have a bunch of resources I'd be willing to share with you.
Pipi
I didn't get along with my sister since day one because I lost all the attention, I'm still jellous of my sister, and I'm thinking that my parents play favorites. My sister gets all the atention, everybody listens to her, and when I want to say something I just get griped at or ignored, what she wants she gets, which was not the case when I was little, she can get away with things she knows not to do, and my parents gripe at me for the littlest things. For example, she can watch tv all the time but my dad gripes at me for using the computer or chatting, she can eat as much junk food as she wants, and drink as much soda that she wants, but I can only have two pieces of candy a day. This girl is so dang spoilt! She has the friends, she gets all the love. Do you se where I'm going? I'm jellous of her, and that's why we don't get along. I really don't think the way me an my sister are treated is right or fair. We should all be treated as equals, no matter the age. I cant take this jellacy much longer!
I wish i was wrong but unfortunately i was right.
Pipi, please share with us some of these websites. If you read my profile you will know that i have a 10 year old brother and an 8 years old sister so it would be interesting to read them.
Your parents do that because they're worried about your health and social life.
That's no excuse for them to treat me and my sister so differntly.
Then, that's something that you and they need to discuss.
Well, that's true. I'm the only one my parents have to babysit my sister, but since I'm uncomfortable doing that, what are my parents supposed to do if they are going somewhere and my sister has to stay home. Someday I'll be ready to watch a kid, but it takes time, and if my sister needs babysitting, they are out of luck.
You and they need to sit down and have a serious discussion about the problems you are encountering when left to look after her, and it's their job as parents to set boundaries for your sister by telling her she must listen to you or suffer the consequences, such as loss of privelidges, or whatever your parents do for punishments. sounds like they need to step up. If they just blow you off and gripe at you for bothering them, do not, (and here, I place heavy emphasis on those two words) give up. You need to be persistent until they listen.
Well, we've talked about that before, but she still doesn't listen to me. She doesn't even listen to my parents. They've tried everything. If I'm not comfortable babysitting, which they know that, who else could my sister be left with.
They can still hire a baby sitter.
Good idea, but my parents would be worried leaving my sister with someone they didn't know.
I'm sure they could find someone they know and with whom they would feel comfortable looking after your sister. just ask them if that's possible.
Hey, I have a sis that age, and you know what? She's aware who's the boss! You need discipline with her. It's not all smiles when my sis disobeys me when we are allone. Well, my rule
You must stay in my sight, and if you don't like it, bah humbug! Too bad because you're not changing that. You will not disobey me or else the consequences reign. I tell her.
"miss, you just sit over there and read a book or something. sometimes." she'll take down games beside me and play a one person game. I can't resist but chuckle. I am strict, and to some degrees, yes, I am quite mean. Disobey, and you will get the lick. Get out of my site, and I'll hit you till there's no tomorrow. Over throw my powers, then you'll be shown who the boss is.
When it comes to compliments though, hey, I do give them well. I tend to spoil kids and all.
Yeah, my sis tries to rule over me all the time. She tells my mum how to punish me. lol! Too bad, though, that's never gonna be the day! My sister tends to gets the favorites too, but... oh, well. I try and live with it. I become Magwitch or rather Snape when it comes to Babysitting. Ooo, I am a monster if I have to.
I want my sister to know I'm the boss too, but when I get on to her, she treats me like a kid her own age.
For christ's sake, grow a backbone and don't give in to her! You need to show her who's the authoritative one, and it certainly is not her!
download87, Yeah, my sister attempts to do the same, but show her if you need to use brutal punishment to show her very clearly you are not her age and you essentially have the power. Spank her if you need to.
Good idea. The only problem is, I'm not allowed to do that , especially when my parents are home.
Do some lecturing then...
I have done some baby sitting its not hard for me, like everyone else is saying show them who is the boss. If the kid says they are going to call and tell on you for being to bossy tell them go ahead. Don't show them you are afraid of them because they will take control of you. You are werryed about her getting hurt, but she could get hurt more if she can do what ever she wants. If you don't want to play dolls with her find something you both like to do.
And really that shouldn't be an issue. If she wants to play with dolls, you should do it to make her happy. Like somebody else said, just pretend to be interested if nothing else, just out of respect, and maybe your sister would treat you like you hope she will because she sees you being nice to her, and trying to keep her happy.
I used to babysit my brothers since about age 11 until about 13, and I've had my share of experiences. One in particular I remember is once when my mom didn't get home when she said she was going to, (she hardly ever did), but anyway, she said we were going to have pizza that night. Well, she kept calling and telling me she'd be back in an hour, but like 3 hours passed and nothing. So we were getting hungry, and so I decided I was going to order the pizza myself! So I had the older of my 2 younger brothers help me by looking up the coupons, and I had to use my 20 dollar allowance to do this. And he got me the number and the coupon, and I ordered. Well at that time, my brothers were acting up, (as they frequently always did), and so I had to punish them. Well after that, I finally sent them to their room and told them they could watch tv until the pizza got here, and I warned them not to come running when they heard the doorbell! Well, what do you know? The bell rings and the youngest one comes running! Just what i told him not to do! And worse...he tells the pizza lady that I am underage, and that I'm not their mom, and that I'm only the babysitter, a teenager. Of course, the lady didn't believe him, or at least I guess she tried to make me feel better. Anyway, I had to tell mom on him the next day and he sure got it! Lol!
And there's more where that came from! But I wont clog the board....
I’ve learnt over the I tend to talk to guys more sometimes, since more of them are in to history, philosophy, and logic. Not so much for the guys but I get criticized all the time that my friends are much older. I mean the closest person on here and just about the only friend on here is 29. One’s about the same and is my employer. Scary kind of, but people tend to introduce teens to me hoping I’d be friends with them instead. Then, we have nothing to talk about. People also like to criticize the things I like to do they call it so adult like.
course of time “showing them who’s boss” isn’t the best solution.
One must persuade them that it’s better to do something else, however if it’s more there feelings and nothing to do with you, it might be better to let them. By this I mean, I am scared, I want to get a chair and sit by the kitchen.
No it may not work all the time but you are incharge of them. This past Summer I was a Counslor in Training at camp I had 8 campers all sighted. There are times when its just hey come on settle down and you have to take control. There maybe times where convincing them is a better approach I agree with that but its mostly I'm incharge listen to me. If you are trying to convince them and its not working out then its okay thats not working now I have to take control. For example all my campers wanted to do was play around throghing a football in the cabin in that case the other counslors, and I we had to step in as the boss and get them in bed. The convincing came in when we were trying to get a camper to partisapate in a activaty you have to use the right one at the right time.
Sorry, there posted more then one post. The top part is for another topic. If you were convincing, enough, well, you could do it both. I manage it, and I know another gentleman can too. It’s all about you and the grand art of manipulation.
Even if you are really good with convincing them that can only go so far and will only work on a kid for so long. Manipulation is not the the way to go by manipulating them you may lose there respect or make them hate you even more making it tougher to get them to do what you want. Also kids aren't stupid they will catch on to what you are doing eventually.
It depends on the age of the child. This topic was started about 2 years ago so if your sister was 9 then, I guess she would be 11 now. Anyway, just because a kid tries to manipulate you doesn't mean you should manipulate them back. First of all, two wrongs don't make a right, and since you're older you'll probably get punished if you make them cry or something. Second of all, trying to manipulate someone who thinks they may be on a higher level than you, but really isn't will just laugh at you if you can't even succeed at doing that. Last but not least, manipulation is never a good idea if it goes on for a long period of time because it could potentially hurt the child's self esteem and cause lasting damage to your relationship. My suggestion would be just try to be calm with her, be nice to her, but if she does something wrong don't stand for it. Show your parents you're responsible and cite examples of what your sister is doing in a mature manner, then they'll be more likely listen to you, as well as your sister will, because she'll see you as her sister and not someone she has to be in a power struggle with all the time.
My sister and I didn't get along a whole lot when we were younger, but we're only 17 months apart. We have a good relationship now, but I can see how it might be harder with two people who have quite a big age difference. But don't think of it as one of you has to be the boss of the other because really you're family and that shouldn't matter. As for playing favorites, parents tend to do that, it's a fact of life. And parents are naturally gonna be more protective of their blind children, so if your sister is sighted, sorry, but she'll probably get more privileges at times. it's not right, but I've come to realize that parents have a lot harder time letting go of their blind children than their sighted children. That's just how it goes.
In the posters defence, I grew up with my aunt and uncle and my younger second cousins were like the posters sister. I was the one who got in to trubble when something happened and the kids wouldn't listen half the time. They would lie and say I was being mean or pushed them or hit them and my aunt believed them until she finally saw for herself that they were lying. My aunt and I went round and round multiple times before she finally got it across that her grandkids weren't perfect. It took me sticking up for myself and a lot of bitter fights before my aunt relised that I wasn't the bitch she called me. But there is a difference between sticking up for yourself and back mouthing. Sometimes you just have to know when to fight and when to keep quiet.
Maybe you can babysit and then let her do as she wishes if she doesn't listen and then when your parents come home tell them she refused to listen and you did what you could witch was try.
I know all the kids I associate myself with consider me someone to look up to. I did sorta bribe two of them, but I doubt I’d have needed to have done that anyways. I sorta brought treats and laughed and talked with them. The way to go is to get along and make them like you before you have to take care of them or give them advice. Since I talk to all the people I advise so much, they listen like angels. I also give them room to oppose as well, and then I further explain. Usually that does it. Sometimes, you have to just not mind it. Think, “fine, it’s not me that will suffer anyways. Let them learn, give them space.”