Surprise Ending

This morning I finally managed to meet my friend, Amanda, at Panera for breakfast. She was appropriately apologetic for standing me up last week; apparently she was laid up with a high fever and vomiting, and couldn't even think straight, and just spaced it. OK, I'll let that one pass. Besides, with the luck I was having last week, I might have rubbed off on her and her viral nightmare might have turned into seething puss pox or something.

We spent some time talking about Mothers Of Preschoolers (MOPS), which I volunteer babysit for with the babies, and she used to sit on the board for, and about the woman who is supposed to be in charge of managing the event, S. S has made a lot of questionable decisions over the year, including announcing last week that she was just going to let a baby, which fell asleep in the stroller with a light blanket tossed over his face to keep the light out while she wheeled him up and down the hall to get him to go to sleep, just sleep in the nursery (which is connected to the room we watch the awake babies in) with the blanket still over his face. I had to force her to go back in there and take it off of him. Hello, NO!!!! Sigh. She has some challenges, including some that I believe are mental, so I hadn't said anything to the Children's Education Director, Cindy, before this, figuring that I was in the room anyway, so I'd just keep an eye on her. Amanda, after sharing some of the things she's seen happen, convinced me that I needed to go to Cindy and ask if this woman could be moved to a room with older children.

I stopped at the church on my way home, and talked to Cindy. I felt a little bad, but hell, it seems to be my year to turn people in about various things. Cindy said that she was glad I'd come in, and that she had been noticing problems as well, so from now on this woman is going to be in with the older children. In her next breath, she asked me if I'd like a job.

!!!!

Apparently, she likes to have a certain number of people actually on staff so she has assured child-watchers, and then she uses volunteers in addition for larger events, like MOPS. She showed me the spreadsheet, which has several times on it where there are either classes or meetings at the church for which they'd like to offer childcare. None are longer than two hours, almost all are in the morning or early evening, and I can sign up for as much or as little as I want, either sticking just with MOPS or picking up a few other things as well. I have no idea how much I'll get paid, but since I'm doing it on a volunteer basis now, it doesn't really matter much. So, I have a ....well, I don't think it's really a *job*, more like a freelance babysitting gig. It's perfect. It'll totally work around any school volunteering I do, I can bring my kids in a pinch, and it'll at least pay for Josie's piano lessons, I imagine. Nice!