5 Kids and a Great Dane

A couple weeks ago I spent Friday night babysitting 5 children and a Great Dane. I was helping a neighbor by sitting the dog and helping my landlord and her friend by watching the children. The Dane was with me and Pili for a week and the children were just over for the evening.

The Dane had spent the day playing in the yard with Pili so the dogs were asleep most of the night - even with all the activities and excitement the children brought to the house.

We colored and ate pizza and watermelon and Otter pops, played red light green light and movie tag, ate marshmallow popcorn, watched "13 going on 30" and had a pillow fight. It was a fun night and hardly seemed like 5 hours of children.

I asked a good friend of mine to come over and help. He is great with children and was a lot of fun that night as well. The main event of the evening happened when my friend was challenged by the 10 year old for who could color the fastest. In the activity books the kids were coloring there was a picture puzzle page that you had to color in the triangles and it made an animal shape. There were many proposals for what would happen if the 10 year old won or if my friend won. They finally settled on his nails getting painted if he lost and if the 10 year old lost she was going to get a batman mask painted around her eyes.

My friend finished his sheet and 2 of the younger children checked his work to find several triangles he had missed. The 10 year old brought me her sheet and she was completely finished. She had won and was pretty excited to paint my friend's nails. He was not happy to lose.

5 colors of nail polish were chosen and each hand was painted with the 5 colors once. He was a GREAT sport and never complained as the 10 year old painted and all the other children crowded around the table to watch and laugh that a grown man was getting his nails painted. After all the kids went home I gave my friend nail polish remover. He had worn the polish all night and never complained as the children teased and I laughed seeing his pretty nails. I couldn't let him leave with the color on his fingers and he was glad to remove the polish before heading home.

I enjoyed the night. I enjoyed the kids. The youngest was a 6 year old girl I had never babysat before who was my little helper. She was my shadow. She was such a sweetheart and I loved tickling her to make her giggle!

I'm still not sure I'll be a good mom or that I want to be a mom. I had a great time with those kids and that night of babysitting helped show me that I don't need to be afraid of being like my mom or be afraid I'll be a bad mom. The more time I spend with children I'm in charge of I see how precious they are and what a great task it is to raise them and treat them with respect and love.

I'm not totally cured and still have my fears and issues. But I'm a little more healed and fearless after that night. Little bit.