Imagine a stranger’s house, one with hallways that parallel a labyrinth’s. Where staircases wind and each twist and turn leads you to a different place - but never to where you want to go. A maze where foreign machinery lines the walls and- in order to successfully complete your mission- you must operate these daunting appliances and pray that nothing will blow up. To make matters worse your main task is to look after two little creatures, ones that hate to listen but love to play hide and seek. These creatures are seemingly cute and innocent to a stranger’s eye but you know better for behind their puppy-like eyes lies a monster that can tear your motivation to shreds. The strength of their lungs rivals those of a lion and their screams of “I want my mommy” echo through the fortress. 

After you spend an eternity calming their sobbing bodies, they’ll beg to watch a show but end up fighting because they can’t agree on one to watch. As their bedtime draws nearer, their energy levels increase despite your best efforts to calm them down. You also can forget about trying to get them to bed before their bedtime because there will always be excuses of “well mommy doesn’t do that” or “mommy always lets us read three books before we go to bed” that will prolong their much-needed sleep. After you read three lengthy children’s books you decide to lay down the law and demand that they go to sleep, but they thwart your plans once more. “Well, mommy always snuggles with me” the youngest will cry, making you want to pull your hair out. While you do sympathize with the small creature, your patience has been pushed to the edge of the gaping canyon of anger and one more act of resistance will make you tip over. In hopes to prevent this catastrophe, you comply to their requesting demand and after five minutes you leave their room.

Finally, it’s over. The crease between your brows can now relax as you collapse onto a couch in the living room lacking the luster that lasted you through the past three or so hours. However, unbeknownst to you the children are not asleep. instead, they are turning their ears to the sound of the front door opening, signaling the arrival of their parents. The instant that door opens the two monsters teleport downstairs, wiping away every smidge of pride that you had felt prior and invoking the threatening thought of unemployment due to your failure to put them to sleep. This is the exhaustingly stressful reality that a babysitter faces when they love children but do not have the respect nor the familiarity that is required to finish their mission successfully.