2 out of 3 ain't bad...

On Friday I got an email from Misguided Mommy. Among other things, it said this "you said that you could maybe watch the boys some time i was wondering if tonight around 7 for like two hours you could watch em at my moms house. i want to take my parents to dinner to thank em for everything they have done for me. if not its coolio i'll figure it out!" Anyone who knows Misguided Mommy know's that she had never let anyone watch her kids except: her parents, her nanny/housekeeper (sorry I have no idea what she really is), and Brandon's teacher. Leaving her kids with anyone else is almost unheard of. I know, and yet I have always said that if she ever wanted, I could watch the kids while her and her hubby went out, or so she could take a nap or whatever. I never actually expected her to take me up on the offer (which is why I almost fell out of my chair at work when I read this...I actually had to read the email like 3 times before I realized that she actually wanted me to watch her kids).


I left work at 6:15 (I swear!) but because of traffic was running late (I swear!). (I'm always late but this time it actually wasn't my fault). I got to Shannon's mom's house and learned I would be watching the kids but also had to keep an eye on Shannon's cousin, who, well, let's say, isn't the most well behaved teenager out there. They kept saying: SHE WASN'T' ALLOWED ON THE PHONE...SHE'S A SNEAKY ONE SO KEEP AN EYE ON HER!. Ok, got it! Mind you, I signed up for babysitting, not teenager-sitting. Those are 2 entirely different things and babysitting, no matter how whiny or annoying they are, is SOOOO much easier than teenager-sitting. But I went with it...


Things went well, most of the night. Brandon and I got into a 20 minute long pillow fight while Shannon's cousin kept an eye on Codi. Codi and I watched the Food Network while Brandon played on his computer. Shannon's cousin stayed close and hung out with us until about 8:15 when she asked if she could go to bed. Ahhhh, you wouldn't that would be such a hard question to answer would you? But it was, so I sent Shannon a text message asking if it was ok...and I'm glad I did, because no, in fact it was not ok. So I told her they were on their way home and wanted her to stay up, they were bringing ice cream home and were gonna play video games when they got there. She said fine and changed into her pj's and laid on her bed in her room with the tv on. Brandon promptly joined her because (apparently) cartoons are WAY more entertaining to a 3 year old than the Food Network. Who knew? So around 8:30 I get a message from Shannon saying they are gonna stop at the grocery store and then will be home.

By this time Codi was getting a little fussy because he was getting hungry and Shannon hadn't left me with a bottle, because, well, Codi won't take a bottle (unless, as a side note, it's water which he promptly spills all over himself and splashes around in). The only thing that keeps Codi from a mini-meltdown is walking around the house with him so I start doing laps from the door of Shannon's cousin's room to check on her and Brandon, around the living room and back to their door, I would peek in and do another lap. And on one or two occasions I may have stopped to watch a few seconds of the Food Network. So I do a few more laps, checking in on them each time. On one of my laps, I turn the corner just in time to see Shannon's cousin headed to the bathroom. So I do another lap, and see her walking from the bathroom to her room (right across the hallway). So I do another lap, peek my head in the door and she's gone. Yup, you read that right, she's gone. For a split second I give her the benefit of the doubt and think she maybe went into another room to grab something, or to the kitchen and I totally missed her. But nope, she wasn't in any of the rooms. So I ask Brandon which way she went and he points down the hallway towards the garage. Again, for a split second I give her the benefit of the doubt and think maybe she's letting the dogs out. So I scream outside for her... (cricket's churping). So I go back inside and text Shannon "Your cousin is MIA". She writes me immediately then calls before I have a chance to read the message, whispering into the phone she's like "is she in my parents room? Is she in the garage? Are you kidding me? Seriously?" Then I hear her mom asking what's going on in the background and her having to tell her parents that her cousin is MIA. "We'll be home in a second". And she hangs up.

So they get home, Codi gets to eat and is all smiles. Brandon is still plastered in front of the cartoons. Shannon's parents come inside just long enough to give me a hard time about losing one of them on my first night of being able to babysit and then take off to find her. I'm not sure of the whole story, but they ended up finding her, and the house of one of her 32 year old male "friends" (did I mention she's 15?), drunk with no money.

And I will never live it down because I am now the babysitter who 'lost one of them'? But to defend myself here:

• I was asked to babysit the boys (you read her email...copied word for word). Not teenager sit.
• I was never technically told I had to watch her ever second they were gone because SHE MIGHT RUN AWAY!
• As far as I'm concerned, 2 out of 3 isn't bad.
• Especially if the 2 that made it out alive (and unharmed) were Shannon's actual kids!
• And as another important point, I am going to be a terrible mother when my kids become teenagers. I am WAY too trusting!
• Again, just to state the important part of my argument, SHANNON'S KIDS MADE IT OUT ALIVE AND UNHARMED.

Apparently Shannon's cousin had actually been planning on running away for a few days and knew that was probably her best shot because Shannon's parents were gonna be home any second, so she risked it, because really, what could I do? I had 2 small kids to watch after..I couldn't exactly chase her down the street even if I had seen/heard her leaving. And apparently she had even told her birth mother she planned on running away. And her birth mother declined to tell Shannon's parents this slightly important piece of information.

And again, SHANNON'S KID'S MADE IT OUT ALIVE AND UNHARMED.