Story About a New Babysitter
The worry is rarely that the babysitter will be unkind. It is that a house runs on rules only the family knows — which cup, how far the door is left open, the fact that the dinosaur book gets read twice — and tonight it is being run by someone who knows none of them. Underneath that sits the question children mostly do not ask out loud: not whether she is nice, but whether you are definitely coming back. It is also why so many children are immaculate all evening and come apart the moment you walk in. The holding together was work.
Below is a complete story you can read aloud tonight, free — the night before tends to work best. When you want the version with your own child’s name in it, and the sitter’s, that takes about thirty seconds to make.
Elias and the Mouse Who Kept Count
A free story to read aloud tonight
On the evening the coats came off the hooks and the good shoes came out of the cupboard, Elias lay in bed with the landing light on half, listening to a stranger downstairs being shown where the fuse box was.
Behind the skirting board, something small cleared its throat. “Nim,” said a mouse. “Third stair, under the loose bit. I have strong opinions about this family’s biscuits and nobody has ever asked me for one.”
“There’s a lady downstairs,” said Elias. “I have known her for nine minutes. She doesn’t know the landing light stays half on, or that it’s the blue cup, or that the dinosaur book gets read twice.”
“And,” he said, more quietly, because this was the actual thing, “I don’t think she’s horrible. I just don’t know when they’re coming back.” Nim did not say don’t be silly. He sat down on his haunches like somebody settling in for a proper conversation.
“I keep count,” said the mouse. “Coats off the hooks: forty-one times. Key in the door afterwards: forty-one times. There is very little else to do down here.” Then a stair creaked, and a voice that did not know the rules yet said, “Is it half on, this light, or all the way?” and Elias said, “Half,” and the light went half.
The house settled into its ordinary evening noises. Downstairs, the stranger turned a page. Elias listened for a while to the sound of somebody else being in charge of the kitchen, and was asleep before ten, and did not hear the key at twenty past — which was the only part of the whole evening he missed.
How do I prepare my child for a new babysitter?
Introduce them while you are still in the house and still visibly relaxed, and hand over the specific rules in front of the child — the landing light, the two stories, the blue cup. Say when you will be back in terms they can actually hold. And say goodbye properly: slipping out buys a calm ten minutes and costs you the next three evenings.
Is it normal for a child to be fine for the sitter and fall apart when we get home?
Common enough to be almost predictable. Holding it together for someone unfamiliar is work, and the person they can safely come apart in front of is you. It is usually a sign the evening went well rather than badly. Expect a clingier bedtime for a night or two afterwards, then a return to normal.
Should I stay for the first hour?
If the child is anxious, a short overlap helps more than a long one — twenty minutes of the sitter being unremarkable in your kitchen. Staying an hour tends to sharpen the goodbye rather than soften it. Leave while things are dull rather than at peak fun, and answer the phone if it rings: a sitter who rings once and gets through rarely needs to ring twice.