THE BABYSITTING STRIPPER

I remember the first time, as a young girl, when I made an "oops," while being "employed" by someone to care for their children.

They lived two houses down from us.
Two beautiful sweet little girls.
The youngest was still well under the age of 1, and the older one, probably 3, or 4.

They had a cat that always freaked me out. Not sure why. The only thing I can think of is it might have been my first brush ever, with any cat, that close.
My family didn't have cats.

My Grandma fed strays and cared for them outside, but that was different. You were told not to go near them.
You didn't.
You listened.

So, yes, this cat made me nervous.

The mistake I made, which almost "cost" me my babysitting job with this family, is I watched JAWS one night.

The oldest girl, wasn't going to bed, and she ended up sitting with me.

AND..of course...dumb young me, she watched JAWS.

Yep, you guessed it, not only did she tell her Mom, but she did in the middle of the night, for the next couple weeks due to nightmares about the shark that eats her in her house.

I still, to this day feel guilty about that.

Strange thing is, thinking back, and remember I was young, probably not even in 6th grade, or close to it, the mom threw a surprise party for her husband, in their home. The kids were sent to my parents house, and I was paid to watch the kids in our house.



Because she hired a stripper for her husband.
Watched the woman dance and groove all over her husband.
In front of their close friends, and neighbors.
A nice large group of friends, that came to, most likely, his 30th.

Man, that used to be old to me.
30 = old

I heard my mom talking about it to someone on the phone.
After the party.
You know, about the stripper thing?
It wasn't something my mom felt was an appropriate thing to do.

Then I remember coming across the album later on.
Naturally, this is all Pre-Jaws night.
She put the pictures in an album.
The birthday party pictures.
The stripper pictures.
...Of this woman doing her groove thang with her husband!...

It was my first brush with sex. Sneak peeks of the TV show, 3's Company didn't count. I couldn't understand why my parents wouldn't let us watch that! But aside from learning in health class, I saw "sex" captured with a married woman laughing while her husband is getting a lap dance. I'm sure that's all it was. But I can guarantee you at the time I was probably shocked, and convinced that it was going to be sex.
Or it was sex.
Who knows.

I was young and impressionable, that's all.
She also had pictures of her having her babies.
The album just on top of the stripper one.


So, the stripper strips.

Some time later I get in trouble for the Jaws issue.

Not sure how many years passed, but eventually this wife that scorned me for the movie Jaws, leaves her husband for his best friend whom she was having an affair with, for quite some time.

Makes the fact that she hired a stripper to get jiggly with her husband, seem, fairly normal.
I'm sure that was far worse for those girls years later, then Jaws was. Or most likely, equally as frightening, only this time, it's real.
It's happening in their home.

But still, I never got over the Jaws thing. I felt horrible and embarrassed, and ashamed, and so worried about how this was going to impact my parents, what they'd think of me. Would the neighbors still want to be friends with my parents even though their daughter became scared of home eating sharks because of me? Would my parents be embarrassed of me?

I definitely, if given the option, would not return to childhood. Or the growth of it all.
I'm not a big fan of death. I realize we arrive here and we return the favor by leaving here, but I would happily stay right where I am. Here. If someone were to say, "I'll grant you one more chance around the block, are you interested?"

Nope.
I'm Happy in the present for all it's 60seconds.
Then we arrive to the next group of 60 seconds.

It really isn't a bad thing, unless you're afraid of sharks.