Strollerderby : household chores

Is the Sitter Just There to Watch the Kids?

JeanneSager — Wed, 04 Feb 2009 21:25:00 GMT

Have you ever asked the babysitter to do laundry? Wash your dishes? Take out the trash.

A fed up babysitter sounded off over at MomLogic this week, putting parents on notice she's paid to watch the kids . . . and only to watch the kids.

"Mary Poppins," says she's sick of moms bugging her about how to properly iron their little boy's shirt before a party, and she's not reaching their hands into that laundry basket and washing hubby's clothes.

She's got a point. She's not the maid. She's the sitter.

But is she a little bit wrong too? Is there ever a time when it's appropriate to ask the sitter to do chores around the house?

It's rare that sitters come to my house, but I can't say that I've ever asked one to do anything more than spend time with my daughter and keep her out of trouble. I try to prep the meals ahead of time, so they have only to throw some milk or juice in a cup at intervals throughout the day and unwrap the PB&J to put it on a plate. They're welcome to the food in the cabinet, but I'd prefer not to come home to a pile of dishes in my sink.

Beyond that, there isn't much I can imagine asking my sitters to do. I admit I am enamored with the one teenager my friend recommended, who spent part of the day in my daughter's room with her, empty each dresser drawer of clothing, folding everything and putting it back. I paid top dollar for her, but wowsa - I could FIND a pair of jammie pants and a jammie shirt that matched that night! You want her number now, don't you?

As a babysitter myself back in the day, I remember doing that type of thing - the unasked-for tidying. I clearly remember alighting from the bus with the little boy I watched every afternoon, heading inside to set him up at the table to do his homework then turning to the dishwasher. We had our adventures, but when we weren't tromping through the woods or reading in the living room, I felt like I had to keep myself busy.

There were limits. I would never have touched the parents' laundry; and if they'd asked I would have balked. Laundry is just too personal a job for someone who isn't being paid to do it, and for a teenaged babysitter to have to see the Dad's underwear there can be untold traumas!

But the kids' laundry is another issue. "Mary Poppins" says she won't iron the baby girl's socks as asked. She won't iron the kids' pajamas either because that's "stupid." I tend to agree with her on the order itself (but then again, I don't iron - that's what a spritz of water and a tumble in the dryer is for). But this is an issue that's related to the task at hand - it's part of taking care of the kids. Doesn't that make it part of her job?

What about picking up after the kids? She says she barely has time to get their dirty breakfast bowls in the sink because keeping up with three toddlers is hard. Yes, toddlers are hard to handle, but she picked babysitting. She told these parents she could handle the task. Now, apparently, she can't. So maybe the people she needs to go back the drawing board with the parents, and discuss what's expected and what she's comfortable doing. Or maybe she needs to find a new job, in a new career path.

I might not ask my babysitter to do much, but if she told me she flat out didn't think she had to do things that related directly to watch my kid, I'd be finding another sitter.

Image: MomLogic

More Power for Women in the Household: Feminist Progress or Yet a Third Shift?

Shannon LC Cate — Fri, 26 Sep 2008 16:46:00 GMT

Though it purports to be about remote controls and television habits, this article in the Washington Post on a recent Pew poll of control in families is really about the work women are doing for their families, many of whom are already working all day away from their families.

Now, in addition to a paid job, housework and manager of the children's lives, women are gaining power in the four areas of finances, weekend activities, big-ticket purchases and television. (The television category is misleading, however, given that most people have multiple televisions and are retiring to separate rooms to watch them rather than squabbling over a family set.)

Finances? Read: balancing checkbooks, researching mortgage refinancing, budgeting for school supplies, winter coats and shoes. Weekend activities? You mean soccer games, dance recitals and religious observances? Big-ticket purchases? Oh, washer/driers, refrigerators and dishwashers?

Sounds like the usual round of women's work to me.

It strikes me as odd that the pollers are acting as if women being responsible for these things is some kind of fabulous feminist progress, because it wasn't like this half a century (and more) ago. Says Andrew Cherlin of Johns Hopkins University, "It's not the same as the 50's and '60's, where 'father knew best'."

Can I get a "duh?"

In this world, women doing more work is not really news. That work--or "control"--as the article calls it getting compensated in the same way men's work is compensated would be real news and real progress.

Top 10 Best Household Chore Shortcuts

Rachael Brownell (Redsy) — Sun, 29 Jun 2008 13:47:00 GMT

Am I the only one who finds weekends far more exhausting than the M-F routine? Weekends often become the Great Chore Pile-On as we rush around catching up on all the things we didn't get done during the week. Forget about a day of rest, how about a day of less work?

Here are 10 household chore shortcuts that won't win you homemaker of the year, but will buy you more time to hang with your kids in the pool:

1. Floors - With the occasional sweep-up, even dusty old wood floors look okay from far enough away. Carpets are grand because unless they're white, you can run a little sweeper once every other week and be just fine. Better yet, just train your eyes away from the floor altogether. Pretty soon you won't mind at all.

2. Laundry - Laundry is tricky. You obviously need enough clothing for you and your little ones, but most of us have enough items kicking around that laundry can be ignored for quite awhile. In my house, we're embracing the beauty of the spot clean. If the laundry pile gets too high, just chuck the piles into the washer or dryer so at least you don't have to look at it.

3. Oven - If you don't have one of those self-cleaning types, why poison yourself and your loved ones with oven cleaner when a quick wipe out will usually do? If it starts smoking, time to start having more takeout.

4. Tubs & Showers - The beauty of tubs and showers is that they are usually hidden away from visiting guests. If necessary, you can run a quick cloth soaked in Windex around the worst spots and hope for the best.

5. Refrigerator - Now this is an appliance that needs to have a self-cleaning capability. I'll admit to washing ours out only every 6 months or so. The only shortcut I've found is dishsoap on some paper towels.

6. Family Car - Our car gets so grimy with crackers and spilled milk that it smells like a bucket full of week-old fish. We only vacuum it out when we see ants. I wish I were kidding, but I'm not. The upside is public transportation or walking looks awfully good by comparison.

7. Kids' Rooms - The nice thing about young kids is that they usually litter most in the public areas. On the off chance your kids' room is a cyclone depot for toys, you can always shove everything into the closet, in case of grandparents visiting or other guests.

8. Closets - You probably shouldn't clean these out ever, especially since this is the place you can stash your overflow from all the other rooms you aren't cleaning.

9. Basements & Garages - If you're in the suburbs or exurbs chances are you have one or the other of these monolithic monstrosities and they're full of crap a mile high. We had a garage sale a few weeks back and in some mystery of the material universe we actually appear to have more stuff covering every square inch now than before. The best plan here is to put everything in a pick-up and haul it to Goodwill or the like.

10. Windows - Dirty windows are a pane (har har!), but when you have kids, it's easy to blame the fingerprints on them anyway. Once a year, we hire this nice man to climb up a huge ladder and clean ours inside and out. So for at least two days a year, we can see the sky from our living room windows.

What chores do you skip or scrimp on?

Strollerderby : household chores

Is the Sitter Just There to Watch the Kids?

Pistol Packing Preschooler Shoots Babysitter

Family Sues Over What Kid Found in Hotel Room

What Could a Baby Really Do in Four Hours?

Smackdown: Party On Baby!

More Power for Women in the Household: Feminist Progress or Yet a Third Shift?

Top 10 Best Household Chore Shortcuts