Hello, inner child, I'm the inner babysitter!

It feels like I'm babysitting in the Twilight Zone. I keep waiting for the parents to show up because we are out of chips and diet cokes.

I Don't Have Time For Both A Wife And An Airplane.

If I chose to have a nanny, I'd be able to pay to have a nanny - a lot of women don't have that opportunity. I don't feel like I'm a working single mom, because I have that option that a lot of people don't have.

No, I didn't have time to take photos, I had young children, all that...

I know it’s bullshit that I say “babysitter” instead of nanny. What I have is a full-time nanny, and I should be roundly punished for trying to make it seem like the teenager next door comes over one night a week. But I don’t like the word “nanny.” It gives me class anxiety and race anxiety. And that is why I will henceforth refer to our nanny as our Coordinator of Toddlery.

Although it has been tough raising them, I have been able to handle it, sometimes with the help of my siblings when I'm not available to be with them.

To be honest, when you have four kids and one grandchild, and one on the way, and a marriage that you are very blessed to have, I don’t want to work all the time.

You are on your OWN now. Except for YOU, no one is going to stay by your side forever. People cannot babysit you forever

When they were not working they had children without being able to secure a man they could really call a husband.

Don't call me Nanny, your Nanny is looking after your kids at your house.

My children are my primary responsibility, but at certain times, and secondarily, a mother needs extra hands, even if she is not engaged in formal work. Whenever I am not at home, I make sure that somebody reliable is there to take care of the children. That notwithstanding, I ensure that I minimise my outings to the barest minimum, to look after my home. Therefore, for the most part of the time they spend at home, I am with them. Remember, they also attended Islamiyyah and non-Islamiyyah schools every day. Alhamdulillah, they are all graduates and married, except the last one.

I'm in a no-win situation. If I have my kids in the show, I'm exploiting them. If I don't, people will think I'm not a hands-on mom.

I do something in my own time.