I Am A Teen And Still Have A Babysitter

I was raised by a single mom and she left me with babysitters a LOT the entire time I grew up, even when I was a teenager. One of the things that bothered me about that is when I was a kid all my babysitters were teenagers. Yet when I became a teen, I still had babysitters. When I brought up that point to my mom she said "You're not mature enough to stay home alone". What I really think was going on is that my mom didn't want me to have freedom when she was gone. She wanted someone to enforce her rules (I still had a bedtime), make sure I do my homework and chores, and make sure I didn't go out with friends.

Thankfully I never had a sitter who was my age or younger. I would have hated that! But the older I got the closer the age gap became. When I was a high school Sophomore, one of my frequent babysitters was a Senior at my same school. I was so worried that she was going to tell everyone that she babysat me. That would have been so embarrassing. I'm not sure who or If she told but somehow I never heard anything about it from my classmates which I was thankful for.

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Briandl · MVIP

Hello, thank you for sharing your story. It's surprising your mom found a babysitter for you from the same school. You mentioned she was your babysitter pretty frequently. Did she act like an adult when she came over to babysit you? I am curious if your mom embarrassed you and brought her over to meet you first before she started babysitting you. I hope to hear from you.

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Cleancut · 56-60, M

@Briandl I complained to my mom at first that this babysitter was close to my age and even went to my same school. My mom got mad and yelled "do not question who I hire to babysit you". She didn't know I overheard the conversation but that night my mom was on the telephone talking to one of her girlfriends "my kid's new babysitter is his age, maybe a little older, but she is so much more mature than him, you know my kid is so immature he's like a little boy". So my mom really believed I was an immature little kid. It didn't seem like she was trying to rub it in about our ages, she genuinely believed it all made sense. Hearing that call it was a mix of embarrassment, defensiveness and acceptance. What I mean by acceptance is my mom sounded so confident that I was immature that it made me think that maybe I was afterall.

She would often have the adult conversation at the dining room table while I was in the living room. I could hear every word. Yes she often said be good...she was used to saying it for years. It was kind of a ritual. Sometimes she would say to the sitter "if my kid gives you any trouble let me know".

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