The Kids I Babysit

Hi, you have A Way with Words.

Hi, I’m Catherine and I’m calling from New York City.

My question is in regard to these three charming young ladies whom I’ve been privileged to know since they were in their diapers. And I just love them so much that I feel like they’re my nieces or my godchildren, but they’re not.

So, in fact, the only way that I know of to describe who they are to me is to use this long, kind of awkward phrase, the kids I babysit. My question is just what does one call one’s best-loved young friends when those friends are not blood relations, and particularly what’s a descriptive term I can use to substitute for the phrase, the kids I babysit?

Oh, wow, what a great question. It sounds like you have a wonderful relationship with them.

I do. They live right down the street from me, and my sister babysat for them before I did.

Martha, I think this might be as difficult to fill as the one for an older romantic partner, something other than boyfriend or girlfriend. This might be as difficult as that.

Yeah, it’s funny because there are all these Victorian words that just almost cut it. Like, you know, you might call that a paramour or something.

Exactly. That’s a great analogy. The same way, though, that we wouldn’t call you a governess.

Exactly. We couldn’t call the kids charges or wards. Let’s just try a few things on you and see how these sound. You guys let me know. Martha, you chime in here.

What if you just called them your friends?

I thought about that, but then that doesn’t get in the employer-employee part of the relationship. Here, let’s just try a few things here. What about Padawan?

What?

What is that?

From Star Wars. Padawan learners. These are the young apprentice Jedis, the very young kids as they start out are called Padawan learners.

Oh, that’s awesome. I love that.

You like that word?

Yeah, I like that word. I’m just wondering if I use that, will people be like, what are you talking about?

Yes, I would be.

What about just calling them your sidekicks?

No.

Oh, no, no. I’m just kind of brainstorming here. What about kid fellow?

One word, fellow. Kid fellows, that’s kind of good. Or kid mate. Associate kid, like associate plus kid.

I know, it’s a horrible blend. My child associates.

Perfect. My child associates. That’s kind of cool.

What?

They would like that.

Well, what do they say? How do they describe themselves?

They always just say, that’s our babysitter. I mean, I’ve never heard them say, we’re her anything. If they send you a gift or give you a birthday card, how do they, did they just sign it with their names, or do they put something like, your whatever’s so-and-so and so-and-so?

They actually always call me by my full name because the youngest one loves Spider-Man, and my last name is Watson. So she thinks of me like I’m Mary Jane Watson. So the whole family has started just calling me a Catherine Watson, and that’s what they call me.

Well, maybe we should start that. Maybe we should start a trend where those little kids are called Watsons. What do you think?

Oh, that’s awesome. I like it. Maybe we can start it right here.

You know, but when you, Martha, when you start testing your power to make words last, you soon find out exactly how insignificant you are.

I know.

Oh, that’s true. And we don’t really want to face that.

Oh, but Catherine, I bet we can pull this off. I think Watson’s kind of nice, you know? Because Watson’s kind of like a common, like it’s used for other things, too.

Yeah, but then you’d have to have Watts’ daughters. Here’s what we’re going to do. It’s entirely possible that the three of us have, even with our massive brain power, that we’ve missed a trick here. So we’re going to throw this open to the listeners.

Okay. And we’re beseeching. The sirens are up, the lights are lit, and the bat signal’s gone out. And we’re looking for your term for kids who are babysat. What do you call them? What is the generic term for these folks?

This is really important. Not a long phrase, like one word or something really easy to say.

And transparent, too.

Yeah, that really works. Put it on our discussion forum at waywordradio.org/discussion. It seems like it’s a whole undescribed terrain, the whole babysitter, nanny, caretaker realm.

You betcha.

You betcha. Thanks for helping me, you know, explore it.

All right. Keep your ear to the ground. Stay tuned. We’ll let you know how it turns out, all right?

Thanks a lot, and have a great weekend.

Okay, you too.

Bye-bye.

Bye-bye.

If you want to tell us what you think this should be, we’re all ears. The number is 1-877-929-9673, or you can send your ideas for this particular word to words@waywordradio.org.