My parents have been waiting for me to get out of school. Why? I am the designated overnight babysitter. Not that they don't trust anyone else... it's just that few people are up to the job, or willing to do it for free. So that leaves me. Last week, I was left alone with my 5 siblings while my parents took a week to travel to St. Martin. While they were off jet-setting, we got busy.
Day 1: Ah... the sweet taste of freedom. We did no housework, and watched TV for hours on end. I was voted "Best Babysitter of the Year". Three of my brothers went to the neighbors' house to camp out in the backyard while I had the neighbors' sister over for a sleepover. My friend and I sneaked out late to TP the boys' camper while they were inside the house watching TV. We left them a creepy note for good measure. Job well done. We stayed up until 2 a.m. watching the long version of Pride and Prejudice. It put us to sleep.
Day 2: My friend and I woke up and called the boys. They came over and we played a good game of Ultimate Frisbee in my backyard. We live in a housing subdivision, and our yard is tiny, so it's more like Extreme, or Arena Ultimate Frisbee. My brother almost got his eye knocked out, but we didn't worry too much about it, we figured that's why God gave him two eyes in the first place. He's OK now. I spent the rest of the day hopping from one graduation open house to another with one of my cousins. We decided that if we were really motivated, we could go a whole month without buying food if we spaced out our open house attendance and took home leftovers.
Day 3: Almost fell asleep in church. I was so tired, the rest of the day went by in a blur.
Day 4: Too tired to remember. I basically sleep-walked all day.
Day 5: We decided to throw a party. Isn't this breaking the number one "what not to do while your parents are away" rule? Movies like Yours, Mine, and Ours and The Pacifier show this quite plainly. We had a modest four guests over. It started raining cats and dogs while we were playing Frisbee, so we ran up and down the street playing tag and screaming like tortured banshees. Our neighbors must love us for that.
Day 6: My siblings, with the exception of my darling little sister, accused me of being cranky. They told me I was the worst babysitter ever. I said, "No, I took second. I'm going for FIRST this year!"
Day 7: Nothing big happened. We developed some serious cases of cabin fever. I sent my siblings to a friend's house.
Day 8: We babysat 3 more children under the age of three. I figured I was already babysitting 5 kids, why not 8? Then we cleaned the house. Yeah, that pretty much took all day.
Day 9: My parents got home. I found out that sibling number 5 hadn't brushed his teeth since my parents left. My parents thanked me for babysitting and asked if they could schedule me for next year. I'm still thinking about it.
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