She Gets The Good Stuff

We have an after school nanny now. She gets the good stuff.

Sidenote: When do you cross the line and refer to a "babysitter" as a "nanny"? In my mind, a babysitter is someone who comes over for a few hours while you go out and pound a couple of bottles glasses of wine and try to have a conversation that does not include a single word about Star Wars. A nanny is someone who has a more permanent relationship with you and your child. Who picks them up from school, knows who his classmates are, intervenes in arguments about Star Wars between your son and his friends on the playground, makes snacks, goes on trips to the library and snuggles with him on the couch watching television after a long day.

My nanny snuggles on the couch with my son. Hence the title of this post.

I'm thrilled about it. Really and truly. After trolling through Sittercity without any luck, grilling friends and putting up flyers in the Education Department of our local University, I reluctantly put an ad on Craigslist. To which she responded, while she was in Nepal, working with poverty stricken women who had been abused and/or involved in the sex trade. Where she went after working in a K5 classroom at a highly regarded daycare. She is lovely, bright, funny, witty, thoughtful and dependable. Best of all, she really gets Finn and all his daily fluctuations. She exceed my every expectation and SHE IS PERFECT.    

Yesterday she sent me a text that said she treated Finn to an after school root beer to celebrate his being named "Star of the week" at school. How fun! I thought and replied as such, but as soon as I hit reply I thought, I wish it were me. It is me, though. I schedule days off regularly now to hang out just with Finn so it's not like I never get to sit and have root beer with him. But it still stings a teeny bit to hear that someone else gets to do it. 

There's something about having two children that makes you really appreciate any one on one time you can find with either one of them, but I especially feel this way about Finn because his vocabulary and his imagination seem to take leaps and bounds inbetween the days off I spend with just him and he's a different kid when he's not competing with his younger brother for our undivided attention.

So I thank my lucky stars when I come home and see him happily sitting on the couch, side by side with her, his feet up and a smile on his face. I wouldn't change a thing. I have to remember that he's getting the good stuff too. 

Comments

[AshleyW]

You are Mommy. There is no substitute! Finn knows it.