As I hit the age of about 15 or 16, I started to think about what job I could acquire to fuel my raging shopping addiction and nights out with my friends. I thought long and hard about it until I realized what a perfect (or so I thought) first job could be: lifeguarding!

I really didn’t know what I was getting into until the first day on the job when someone puked on the side of the pool and as part of my “qualifications as a lifeguard,” I was required to clean it up. As I was cleaning up the puke I thought to myself, “this is going to be a very long summer.” I stuck it out the rest of the summer seeing it all: clogged toilets, cockroaches on the pool deck, and even human feces in the pool. I started to realize that maybe the $7.25 an hour was not worth it for the amount of horrific things this job endured. The summer ended and I was left jobless with about one hundred dollars in my bank account. I guess I was back to square one. 

I looked to my older sister for advice on what my next job should be. She had been a babysitter for about two years with this one family and she loved it. She allowed me to pick up one of her babysitting gigs to see if I liked it and after one day on the job, I finally found my calling. Babysitting was honestly so fun for me. I got to play outside, watch movies, play board games all while taking care of a really easy going kid, and let’s not forget the pay was really good. As I babysat more and more, my name got out to more families and I was booked almost every weekend. 

Now a year later, I still babysit and it’s honestly the perfect job for me.

I think every teenager should try babysitting out at least once because it’s really not as tiring or stressful as other jobs. You can also choose your hourly wage which is unlike any job you will have.

Babysitting has also taught me so many things including how to handle stressful situations and, even more useful, how to make craft mac and cheese from the box. I also love kids, which makes this job so rewarding. Babysitting teaches you so many things that you can implement into a real job in the future, including cleaning up after people, cooking food, and learning how to communicate with other people that are both older and younger than you. I wouldn’t trade it for any other job in the world. So if you are ever left without a job or in need of some extra cash, babysitting might be the perfect job for you.