by Maddie Knopke

All year long we wait for it. Tanning, Arnold Palmers, high-waisted shorts…Summer. Our time without stress, anxiety or pressure. Right? Wrong. For many STA students summer becomes a time for dirty diapers, stubborn toddlers and an excessive amount of band-aids. This summer, these STA girls traded their tartan plaid for shirts splattered with baby food. Here a a few pieces of their brave pursuit to be a nanny.

“The little boy got playdough stuck in his ear so I had to go running around the neighborhood looking for help. I finally found a lady who was a nurse…she helped me get it out.” – junior Marina Vianello

“I had the little kid cook dinner for me–something easy of course like Mac n’ Cheese. So I was sitting there waiting and the parents walked in. I’m sure they were wondering why their son was cooking dinner for me.” – senior Grace Dominique

“One time the kids were asleep when I got there but after awhile one of them started screaming in their sleep. Then the other started screaming. They seriously had these nights terrors all night long. Both of them. It didn’t stop.” – freshman Catherine Brown

“So I was watching a baseball game after the kids went to sleep when I started hearing this flapping noise. I looked over and saw a huge black bat. I grabbed a tennis racket and one of the boy’s baseball helmets and ran through the living room towards it but missed. Then the parents came home and my dad came over too and we searched the house for hours…but it had disappeared. After a few days, they called my house and said they found it underneath the youngest boy’s bed. I’m forever scarred.” – junior Abby Dearth

“So the three-year-old I nannied caught onto how twitter worked. She took my phone and retweeted 5 of @common_squirrel’s tweets. They said, ‘hop’, ‘run run run’, ‘blink’, ‘sleep’, and ‘stare’.” – junior Natalie Kilgore

“It took me forever to put this crying one-year old down to sleep, and while I was trying, his sister decided to hide from me. I spent literally an hour looking for her, and I didn’t get to eat the McRib my dad brought me.” – freshman Darby Pedersen

“I used to take the kids to the library so that way I wouldn’t have to hear them talk.” – junior Christi Backer

“I was heating something up in the microwave, oblivious to the fact that the container wasn’t microwavable. I went to go tell the girls the food was almost done, and when I came back, the microwave was on fire. I ran across the street with the girls to get my dad, because we are neighbors. But as I walked back into their house full of smoke, so did their dad.” – sophomore Gracie Fleming

“So the little boy hates me right, like really does not like me. I tried playing Apples to Apples with him once and he completely freaked out, started throwing the cards everywhere and then pulled my pants down and bit my arm. I had bite marks for at least a week.” – junior Rachel Smith

“One time the kids made a flamethrower” – freshman Andie Round

Some students took to Twitter to express their experiences: