Misadventures in baby sitting

My niece and nephew (and their spouses) will probably think twice before they ask me to sit with their little ones in the future.

They were all attending a wedding and needed a sitter for their children. Stacey and Tom have two; Brandi is 12 years old and Ian is 6. Joe and Tess have two girls; Janie, 6, and Josie, 2. When they asked if I'd be available and willing to watch my great nieces and nephew, of course I said 'yes'. Great opportunity to spend time with the kids and fill some of the void from missing my own two grand kids. My sister told me she was so relieved her grandkids would be in the care of someone she knew would take good care of them. (That's as important to grandparents as it is to parents.)

The moms and dads headed off and the kids and I settled in for a day of fun. Although the temperature in SW PA was in the 90's, we still headed outside to play in the yard. I hooked the sprinkler to the garden hose, dressed the kids in their bathing suits, slathered them with sunscreen and headed out so they could play and cool off. The three little ones ran and jumped through the sprinkler, played on the swings, raced down the slide and just had fun being kids. Brandi and I just stood back and watched but managed to get splashed every now and again. At one point I noticed Janie swinging higher than I thought safe. I was just about to say, "Janie, don't swing so high" when BOOM---she was on the ground. I ran over, picked her up and just cuddled her for a while. I thought she'd slipped off the swing because of her wet bathing suit but she told me she was jumping off like she always does. Unfortunately, she landed on her arm. I had her wiggle her fingers and rotate her wrist and since everything was moving the way it should, figured it was fine and maybe she'd sprained it when she fell.

We all spent the rest of the day blowing bubbles, watching barges go up and down the Monongahela river, watching geese and their babies swim by, flagging down the ice cream man for a treat and playing whatever games they came up with. I found 'shooter weeds' and taught them all how to shoot them and showed them how to put a broad blade of grass between their thumbs and make a whistle by blowing on it.

Janie participated in everything but I noticed she wasn't using her arm that she'd fallen on. I asked several times if it hurt and she said it didn't. I made an ice pack and tried to get her to hold it on her wrist but she preferred to eat the ice instead. Typical kid.

When their parents came home, all the little ones were asleep. I told them about Janie's accident and they checked her wrist and thought it might be a sprain.

Needless to say, I was concerned about Janie. I was awake early Sunday morning and just watched the clock until I thought it was a decent time to call my sister's house to see how Janie was doing.

Joe and Tess took Janie to a Med Xpress late Sunday morning. Her wrist has a small fracture. Right now she has a splint and the doctor said they could wait until they were back home in North Carolina for the cast but they're going to take care of it while they're here. Janie told me she thinks it's pretty neat that she got to pick out a purple cast.

Needless to say, I feel just awful. First that it happened on my watch and second that I didn't call them and have them come home from the wedding as soon as it happened.

At no point has anyone said anything to lead me to believe they blame me for Janie's accident or that they think I was neglectful. I've been harder on myself than anyone could ever be over this.

I've always been very watchful when little ones are in my care and have been babysitting since I was 12 years old. Won't say how many years that's been. Having raised a rambunctious and energetic little girl, I know accidents happen. I prefer they don't happen on 'my watch'.

I think in the future, if I'm the sitter, we'll sit on the couch with pillows all around us. Boring, but surely that will prevent any accidents!