Babysitting Night, How we Organize

Hope you guys had a great weekend.  We did, starting with babysitting night, it was our turn to sit.  I thought I would take a few more minutes to chat about how we organize the nights that we take the turn to babysit and how we organize our group.

When it is our turn to watch, we have the kids play for about 2 hours.  Since they are excited to see thier friends, and everyone trickles in at different times, it goes off without a hitch.  There have been weeks that only one family brings their kiddos, so we will venture out to the park or some other easy location.  If two or three families bring thier kids that week though, we find it easiest to just stay at home.  This week, the kids found an array of 'weapons' which I promptly overrode as 'charging equipment' and played "WARRIORS!"  I think it was inspired by everyones recent trips to Brave, which is really a sweet movie.  Ethan was really scared by the bear though, so if you have a youngin that is afraid of "scary creatures" be forewarned.  :)

So they play for a few hours and then wind down for about 30 minutes.  Dustin usually oversees this part while I make a snack and pour everyone a drink in pre-labeled (ideally) cups.  Then we put on a movie and finish up the night.  The movie is ending right around the time parents arrive to pick up kids.  Honestly, it is a piece of cake and super fun.

This particular night, Dustin & I still got to go on a date as the kids were having a late sleepover at Grandma's house.  We went to Spiderman, I squished Dustin's head while he was buying tickets.  True Love.

We have a few "rules" in the group.

Both parents need to be there on the night they are babysitting, there can be too many kids for one person to take care of properly.

You can't opt out of a month, it throws the whole thing off.  If you can only bring your kids to one of the dates, you still take your turn babysitting.  If you look at it right, you're still just trading one night for one night.

Parents need to feed their kids dinner before babysitting.  This allows family to have dinner together, and saves two parents from trying to coordinate dinner for four families worth of children.

Thats pretty much it.  We've been doing it for about 5 years now and love it.  This particular year, two of the girls in babysitting were also in Eliza's class.  Talk about giggle-heads.  I think the teacher grew a little weary of them about the first month into school and separated their seats.  Haha!  I'm just glad they are developing friendships.

xo

S

Comments

[Nicola Dodd]

Such a lovely idea! We have always entertained with kids - they eat first then watch a film whilst the grown-ups have time together, we have also had fab holidays together - and over the years it has been so wonderful to see the the children share that amazing bond. I'm sure it will last their whole life x

[angela r j]

Oh the joys! It was our group (that we unfortunately didn't do for very long) with you and the Bascoms that got me interested in your line of work. Not that I've done anything with it, but I still dream about being like you someday. :)

[Lisa]

Such a great idea, and a win-win for parents and kids alike!

[morecigarettes.net]

A huge round of applause, keep it up.
online cigarettes

[maillot football]

good information,I llike it very much,thank you.

[Jessica]

Squishing Dustin's head like a grape, huh?...Does he know you're doing this;)... We do a swap too and LOVE it! We go 4 hours though:) I hope you continue to enjoy it!

[accessories]

I always spent my half an hour to read this website's content every day along with a cup of coffee.

[lunettes de soleil marque]

Wow questo sito è davvero sorprendente per me, sono rimasto colpito da questo sito.

[Adidas Porsche Design]

Great article. Thanks for sharing information with us, this blog is very interesting,Thank you, Enjoy watching my website.

[Jeremy Scott Wings]

I am hoping I can build a site similar to your own and will check out your posts with great interest.

[cheap juicy couture diaper bags]

we pittered around her house for the day and by the time Dustin rescued us I had a raging cold going on. Y

[e-cigarettes retail]

Great blog you people have maintained there, I totally appreciate the work.