i'm off to babysit my french neighbors children [lol kicker :lol:].. does anyone have any babysitting tips for a 6 year old boy and a 3 year old girl? any fun games? anyone?? thanks :D

Video games. I've never done much babysitting, but I can manage to keep the kids under control if there's a Nintendo console nearby. ;)

Yep! Video games are good. So are tapes. You can easily keep little kids entertained if they're watching a movie or a favorite cartoon (Spongebob for example...if they like him).

if only i had a video game thing *sigh*

anyone have any tips for making them fall asleep? :lol: i usually tell them their parents are going to be home any second and they get scared and go to bed, but the little[r] one cries sometimes :(

Don't you have a Gameboy Advance?

Um, try coloring with them. Or if not that, get out some paper and crayons, and say something like,"Let's all draw a dog on a farm," and then you can take turns telling stories about the dog on the farm (that they drew). Or play games. There are lot's of games that you don't need any materials for, and that can be could for both the three year old and the six year old.
Kids normally like it when you seem interested in them, and get them involved in stuff. I mean, you can just try to keep them busy with TV and stuff, but they'll have more fun and you'll have more fun (not to mention time going faster) if you do something creative and/or active.

good idea!!! they love to draw! wow you're wise. :) maybe i'll do playdo with them too, i have a lot left from my bday party [dont ask :lol:]

lol, no, I just have a little sister :stickout:

I just remembered, if they like stuff on Nick Jr. and stuff, and if you have a printer, there's lots of things to print out on nickjr.com. If you have some time before you need to go over there you can find a lot of stuff on the internet.

I usually make up games for them to play, and then play them :P That usually tires them out. And movies are good, they normally fall asleep during the movie.

i usually feel like going to sleep before they do :hehe:

I have the best method ever for calming down kids who won't stay still...
I used to have to babysit 3 kids, and 3 or 4 of their friends always came over, so I had 6 or 7 loud kids to take care of. So when I got annoyed I used to have the "quiet contest". Whoever can stay still and quiet for the longest wins! They actually enjoyed it, and for 2 whole minutes I got some peace and quiet lol. Then they would calm down a bit after the 'contest' was over.
You can also play the "inanimate object" game.. There's nothing a kid likes better than pretending to be a rock or a stop sign.

I wasn't a bad babysitter, they loved me. I'm not sure why though, lol.

Never play hide and go seek.

kids = ick :lol:

Definitely movies, you can't go wrong with those. That's what I always do, and by the time they're done watching the movie, it's magically 8:30 PM, and then there's only worrying about night time snacks and getting ready for bed.

There's these two kids I love babysitting, absolute angels. :) When the movie's done, they get up, have their night time snack, get ready and go to bed themselves. After that all I have to do is sneak downstairs, get out a glass of flat soda and read until eleven, heh.

I think it's alot easier to babysit for kids who are content to just play "imagination" games. Once I babysat a kid who was content to let me chase him around the basement while we were both on tricycles, lol. And that occupied him for over an hour. Then the two kids I mentioned above, they were occupied for about half an hour by hitting me with pillows. :lol: I love doing things like that, it's almost like I'm the one who's five or seven again, and they're kids, they want someone who'll act like that around them. Not like any of the babysitters I used to have over the summer, they just watched TV and racked up a huge phone bill.

Oh goodness, I'm trying to imagine playing hide and seek at a babysitting job. I can just see me never finding the kids until 11, because Bob knows they wouldn't give up their hiding places..

Which (for some odd reason) reminds me, where are my parents? Pfft, "we'll be there in a little while" my bum.

i'm off to babysit my french neighbors children [lol kicker :lol:].. does anyone have any babysitting tips for a 6 year old boy and a 3 year old girl? any fun games? anyone?? thanks :D

Hahahaha!
Sal: I need to babysit my neighbors.
Me: o.o
Sal: I mean their kids, lol.
Me: ROFLOL

kids = ick :lol:

Thank you.

have you considered bringing a bottle of Vodka? That ought to get them to nice and quiet...

have you considered bringing a bottle of Vodka? That ought to get them to nice and quiet...
And if it gets a bit rowdy, you can have a shot yourself to keep you sane..

have you considered bringing a bottle of Vodka? That ought to get them to nice and quiet...
:lol: I should try that sometime.. -tries to imagine what it would be like- Nah, I'll stick to movies and made up games :P

Stay away from large bags of sugar. ;) There's my tip.

Rofl, that's a very VERY good tip. Never can tell what can happen when you give them too much sugar.. -shudder- They remind me of me. :P

have you considered bringing a bottle of Vodka? That ought to get them to nice and quiet...


hahah!!!

so this is how it went:

i get there and we went upstairs and did puzzles. surprisingly, the 3 year old was better than the 6 year old and i :lol:. then we went downstairs and played w/ the playdo that i brought and then stared at their FAT hampster. :buckt: then we played hide and seek for a few rounds, which was fun. the kid hid in the dryer! haha! luckily he didn't get stuck, i guess he's done it before so he knows how to get out. i was worried though, because i said "i give up" and he still wouldn't get out. anyway, then we finished the movie they had been watching when i got there [thank god for aristocats :P] and then it was their bed time [9pm]. soo.. they went to bed really fast! the little one barely cried because i said the sooner she goes to sleep the sooner her mommy would be home. it was so easy! i spent more time watching law and order waiting for the parents to get home than i did watching them ;) anyway, i got $40 for five hours which is more than minimum wage! wee! it's sort of sad though, the parents go out for one night and they have to pay me 40 bucks just so i can play with their kids. haha. thanks for all your help!

Whoa! 40 bucks! That's nuts. Really cool though. Sounds like fun.

I got three or four dollars an hour when I babysat. :lol:

I can't babysit yet. :crying:

I got three or four dollars an hour when I babysat. :lol:i'm quite fortunate i suppose, since my neighbors aren't too frugal :D its okay kicker, only one more year 'till you're of legal age!

Okay so this is twenty years ago, but when I was a teenager, I used to get one dollar for an entire evening...
Maybe that's why I'm all for the bottle of Vodka idea, one dollar isn't much consolation for having to spend several hours in the presence of little kids.
I was actually thrilled when later I was asked (by a different family) to babysit for one dollar per hour...