Successful Babysitting ( Without Catapults)

To my dear Writing Center buddies and all tutors beyond,

Be very thankful for your time as a tutor if you are planning to go into a field where you work particularly with children or where you would be working with some difficult people (which, in general, is every field by the way). So why in the world am I saying this? Well, as some of us may know, kids can be very difficult sometimes, so much that you would want to do this. But…… we are not catapulting any anybody here (at least I hope not) so let’s get to the point. For some odd reason, tutoring reminds me of babysitting greatly.

Babysitting?!

No!No! Not that babysitting. I mean this one:

I babysit a lot (like 5 days in a week), so I am not saying I am an expert or anything on kids but I am pretty sure, I can give some solid advice on their character or at least I can describe them in two words: delightful and dreadful. 

There are those days, when everything in the world is perfect and their angelic smiles just make your face glow but then… come the days when you  want to take out the catapult.

Tutoring is similar to babysitting in that you have to find ways to deal with lot of different kinds of people. Through observation and research, I have come to the conclusion that they are two main types of characters that transcend across the borders of tutoring and baby-sitting. We have the “Grumpies” and the “Know-it-Alls”.

 Does this sound familiar?  “OMG, why do I have to do this, ugh?”

You are 100% right, if you said it’s the ringing voice of the “grumpies.” Kids who don’t want to do what are told exclaims this voice beautifully just like some of our loving tutees that are required by a teacher to come in. In cases like this, PATIENCE is the key. Give them the time to think through, and realize that the sooner they do whatever it is, the faster they are out of there. You can do it, trust me.

Next is my personal favorite, the Know-it Alls. They is a lot of room for creativity in this one. Let your imagination flow on how to deal with them. For kids like this, what I usually do is give them a little special quiz of all the stuff they specifically don’t know unless for like one or two questions. Afterwards, they calm down a bit and we have fun learning together. But with our tutees, you might want to try something different but BE NICE.

I hope you have enjoyed your lesson on babysitting and a teeny bit on tutoring. That one should NEVER CATAPULT KIDS, no matter how much they make steam come out of one’s ears. Remember, they have their beautiful days too. If you have any questions, don’t hesitate to email.