Babysitter giving bath

[sucin]

Ben - agreed, I plan to ignore anyone else not engaged in an actual conversation with me. I too don't know how to share my email though. I still check this site from time to time when I have time to surf the internet (not lately - school is very busy). So if you post I will see it.

I wish I could share my e-mail address with you and Rob but I don't know how to do it without the colonel and other posts seeing it. Take care.

i am a new baby sitter and things here are interesting i am
going out on my first job and you have helped me i am
13.
Ben

[Guest]

[Guest]

[Guest]

[Michelle R.]

Ben - not sure if you still ever check here. I haven't been on too much lately, busy with school. I did register on here so others can't pretend to be me. Anyway, something happened the other night I thought you would find interesting since you were always concerned about boys' privacy. I was babysitting a ten year old boy and during his bath for the first time he said he could do it on his own so I said ok and watched him and he did a good enough job of things, so when his mom came home I told her that he wanted to do it alone and did ok and she was surprised because he hadn't done that to her but said she'd follow up on it and if he is fine doing it alone now then that's great. So just another example that whenever a child is ready and able to bathe himself or herself that's great, but that it happens at different ages. I actually think it's interesting about what triggers this. For example, I had babysat this boy barely one month before, but he had no issues with me being in the room and a little involved with parts of the bath at that time. But the other day he was very clear that he wanted to start being alone.

[ben12380@aol.com]

Oh, so Michelle you must have been impressed. Maybe he was more embarrassed having a babysitter wash his body than his mother so that might have been the reason he wanted to do it on his own while you were babysitting for him. Maybe he will start rather taking showers than baths soon.

[ben12380@aol.com]

[quote="june 19"]Hi ben12380

If I was 14 or 15 or even 16 and a male babysitter was looking after me I would think because a female dose not need looking after like a boy dose he would not bath me as you know female genitals are partly self cleaning you do not have a forskin to look after like boys do. And boys do not wash that well. I never had a boy that minded me washing and checking there genitals and as Robert said the testicals can have lumps on them and the sooner they are delt with the better[/quote
Since when does a female not need to be babysat for like a male? June, I don't know where you come up with all these sexist comparison assumptions??? Like I mentioned before, girls are usually more VULNERABLE than boys are when it comes to things like being left home alone or going out on the streets alone. According to common knowledge, girls in these situations are MORE likely to be attacked, molested, abused or even worse. Keep that in mind before saying, "A female does not need looking after like a boy does."

[ben12380@aol.com]

Ben - not sure if you still ever check here. I haven't been on too much lately, busy with school. I did register on here so others can't pretend to be me. Anyway, something happened the other night I thought you would find interesting since you were always concerned about boys' privacy. I was babysitting a ten year old boy and during his bath for the first time he said he could do it on his own so I said ok and watched him and he did a good enough job of things, so when his mom came home I told her that he wanted to do it alone and did ok and she was surprised because he hadn't done that to her but said she'd follow up on it and if he is fine doing it alone now then that's great. So just another example that whenever a child is ready and able to bathe himself or herself that's great, but that it happens at different ages. I actually think it's interesting about what triggers this. For example, I had babysat this boy barely one month before, but he had no issues with me being in the room and a little involved with parts of the bath at that time. But the other day he was very clear that he wanted to start being alone.

Michelle, I wanted to say, "I apologize for not responding to your message until now." What happened is, I have attempted to check on this site a few times after our last discussion but was unable to down-load it. For some reason, it looked to me like this website got erased temporarily somehow and it wasn't until recently that I was finally able to down-load it. By the way, how is your babysitting career going? Do you play well with the children? Are your grades in school decent? I live in a tiny apartment in the basement of a house and above me lives a family with 5 children all adorable. They have 2 girls and 3 boys. As far as I know, their oldest child,(daughter) does the babysitting when their parents are not home. I think she might be about your age. Best Always,
Ben

[Michelle R.]

Oh, so Michelle you must have been impressed. Maybe he was more embarrassed having a babysitter wash his body than his mother so that might have been the reason he wanted to do it on his own while you were babysitting for him. Maybe he will start rather taking showers than baths soon.

Not really, he seems ready to take over the job. As I've said before, sometimes I have encouraged kids to try it on their own, but only in one instance ever (of the actual times I have personally babysat) did the child come up with the suggestion (and that one didn't go well for a while). Actually, I heard from his mom (because she might need me to sit in a couple days) and she spoke to him the next day and he doesn't want help from her any more either. She said so far he's doing fine, so it looks as though he'll be on his own from here on. (I didn't think he was more embarrassed with me because I've been sitting him a while now - they are actually the closest family I sit for, only two blocks away.) Showers at home aren't likely - the second bathroom only has an old tub in it. We live in a neighborhood that has lots of older houses - "heritage homes" they're called. Not a lot have been modernized.

Work has slowed down a little - maybe the economy, so people are going out less. But I still get at least a couple nights a week. A lot of people know me (or of me) around here, so I get a lot of calls. I play with the yonger kids before they go to bed, the older ones are usually ok on their own. I can just relax or do homework. (3.9 average - would be 4.0 except for French!) In my free time I enjoy binking, jogging, swimming, hiking, all of which are free activities, so I manage to save a fair amount these days.

[Margaret D]

I was babysitting a ten year old boy and during his bath for the first time he said he could do it on his own so I said ok and watched him and he did a good enough job of things, so when his mom came home I told her that he wanted to do it alone and did ok and she was surprised because he hadn't done that to her but said she'd follow up on it and if he is fine doing it alone now then that's great.

A ten year old boy should be able to wash by himself just needing supervision. Many ten year old boys need supervision while bathing because if left unsupervised they become lazy and no longer wash themselves properly.
If you were already just supervising that boy´s bath, without actually washing him, then his request wasn´t that much of a change. Was he already washing himself with you just supervising or were you still washing his body yourself?

[Michelle R.]

A ten year old boy should be able to wash by himself just needing supervision. Many ten year old boys need supervision while bathing because if left unsupervised they become lazy and no longer wash themselves properly.
If you were already just supervising that boy´s bath, without actually washing him, then his request wasn´t that much of a change. Was he already washing himself with you just supervising or were you still washing his body yourself?

Margaret - That's a valid clarification point. Yes, in this case (as with pretty much all children this age when I'm still involved to some capacity) I was only supervising. What "supervising" entails is also something that varies according to the child (girls included). Sometimes I am in there sitting the whole time to make sure they actually wash properly (or in the case of one boy, to make sure that the room isn't flooded by his playing getting out of control). Sometimes I'm in and out, checking on progress or to remind them to stop playing around and get on with it. Sometimes I help with hair or back washing. And sometimes the child just likes the company, or even someone to play with a bit first. In this particular case I wasn't even staying in there the whole time, just coming in an out. But he wanted to have privacy here on out and since he is doing ok his mom is fine with that (me too).

About your point about ten year old boys needing supervision because they are lazy, I'm not sure if I agree with that. I'd say that on average boys may tend to be less mature at that age and less interested in washing and more interested in playing (or getting done as soon as possible so they can get out and play or watch tv), which is why they may need checking on more than girls. But there are girls I do/have sit/sat for who need supervision just as much as boys do.

[Guest: Pathetic]

Ok I just happened upon this today and read some of the pages. I think the actual issue here has been adressed enough but now I'm mad because some people can't get it through their thick skulls that boys can be more mature if not more than girls. Yes we are typically less mature than girls especially with friends but some of the people on here think it is attroscious to even think about a boy babysitting just because we are suppossedly unmature but we can be much better than girls especially with younger boys as we have been through that stage before and a girl wouldn't know exactuly what to do.

[Michelle R.]

Ok I just happened upon this today and read some of the pages. I think the actual issue here has been adressed enough but now I'm mad because some people can't get it through their thick skulls that boys can be more mature if not more than girls. Yes we are typically less mature than girls especially with friends but some of the people on here think it is attroscious to even think about a boy babysitting just because we are suppossedly unmature but we can be much better than girls especially with younger boys as we have been through that stage before and a girl wouldn't know exactuly what to do.

Hi P (I don't want to call you by your full name, sounds insulting to you!),
I agree that others have taken that position, which I think is incorrect which is why I always discuss girls and boys. The only part I'll side with is when people say that, while they cannot cite to any particular study, the general consensus seems to be that girls as a whole mature faster than boys (both physically and mentally), and that my own small real world experience in babysitting seems to support this. But on a case by case basis, yes a boy can definitely be more mature than a girl of the same age. And I think that boys can make just as good babysitters, and you're right can be very good for boys (especially if the boy lacks lots of male role models). I can sympathize though with parents who are afraid about hiring boys because of the stories they hear. It doesn't help that not as many boys seem to be interested in babysitting, so people hear less about male babysitters and, therefore, may think the idea of a male babysitter sounds odd. Kind of a self realizing prophecy issue. I have a male friend who babysits sometimes and he is great and I have given his name to families when I am not available. Some have called him but others haven't...

(If it sounds like I am proactively coming to my own defence, it's because I have been accused of taking the position that girls are more mature than boys, period, which is not the case.)

[The Colonel]

[Pam]

I am a baby sitter and I find some boys can bath them selfs from the age of 7 or 8 but others need help untill they are 14 or even 15 but I allways check on the ones that bath them selfs . If I have been sitting for them for a number of years they get used to you being there and do not mind you seeing there private parts even if they are hard. And the ones I do wash I allways wash every thing it would not be right to not wash there genitals . There is a boy that I used to sit for that comes to stay at my home with me now and then his mother and I have known each other for years he is about 30 now and when he takes his bath he never minds me seeing him he comes out after a bath naked . I think it is because I used to bath him years ago that he dose not mind