I approached the interview process by asking the couple I baby sit for, Kevin and Annie Schwab, if I could talk to each of them briefly the next time I had to baby sit. They have a newborn baby named Colin.

Annie Schwab, age 35.
Interview time: September 6th at 6:30pm.

As a new parent some of the challenges Annie faces are getting sleep, having freedom to do her own thing, must always be focused on Colin, and leaving the baby when she has to go to work.

When Annie is faced with these challenges, they affect her parenting skills by constantly testing her. Sometimes because of lack of sleep she may not have enough energy to entrain the baby through out the day. Also, being away from the baby is hard because she doesn’t want to miss anything.

Annie is faced with these challenges daily.

Sometimes Annie will put the baby to bed a little later so that he won’t wake up as early. Also, hiring a baby sitter like myself gives her some time to relax from work and taking care of the baby. Most of the time when I baby sit Colin is sleeping so Annie is not missing much.

Kevin Schwab, age 43.
Interview time: September 6th at 6:45pm.

As a new parent some of the challenges Kevin faces are a lot like his wive’s; getting sleep, must always be focused on Colin, and leaving the baby when he has to go to work which is very frequent especially because of travel. Also Kevin is not as good at keeping up with the certain time Colin eats/sleeps and Annie likes to be on a strict schedule with those things, for the most part.

When Kevin is faced with these challenges, they affect his parenting skills because a lot of times Colin wants the attention from his mom because he sees more of his mom due to Kevin’s constant traveling.

Kevin is faced with these challenges daily.

Sometimes Kevin will take off work and spend a day alone with just him and Colin. Also, Kevin will try to put Colin to bed at night instead of Annie as long as Colin will allow it.

It seems that Annie and Kevin both struggle with getting sleep because of the baby.

Also, both of them work a lot. Kevin is absent more than Annie, but they both seem to struggle with being away from Colin. They don't want Colin to either forget them, or do anything that they will miss out on.

Lastly, they both expressed how sometimes with other things going on besides the baby it can be hard to stay completely focused.

A couple ideas for Annie and Kevin to solve, some of their problems would be to have me baby sit more often. That way they when they are worn out from work and Colin they can have a bit of a break. Also, as Annie has done before, they can put Colin to bed a little later so that he won't wake up so early. But if they do not want to spend too much time away from Colin then maybe they should take more time off from work to be with Colin and while with Colin try not to let other things distract them such as phone calls, tv, texts, etc.