Clinton News-Record, 1980-11-13, Page 43abysitters .finished course.
By Shelley McPhee
What does the babysitter do if the'
hydro goes off? What if someone
knocks at the door,, does the sifter let
them, in? What if the youngster wakes
up and takes sick? What does the
babysitter do if there is afire?
Babysitting involves more than
sitting in front of the television,.
munching on potato chips and making
a few' dollars, while the parents are
out at a dance.
'It's now being realized that
babysitting is responsible and im-
portant chore for young, people.
Recently in Clinton, 13 teenaged
girls and boys took part in a four week
course on babysitting training.
Sponsored by the Clinton Kinette
Club, Clinton and area youths, 12
years and older took part in the
course under theinstruction of Bette
Dalzell.
The Thursday evening sessions
began with the basics of child care
starting from infants to school age
children. With help from experienced
mothers the students learned how to
bath and diaper infants through the
use of dolls.
The class also learned what in-
formation they should receive from
parents concerning the children as
well as the rights and responsibilities
of the babysitter and the employer.
The babysitters learned that they
should be given clear instructions
Ofrom the parents on what is expected,
what food the child is allowed to have,
when bed time is and whether
television is allowed.
Information on \where the parents
can be reached in' an emergency and
telephone numbers for a neighbor, he
doctor, fire department and police
should be left with the sitter.
If there are family pets, a sitter
should be told whether they are
. allowed indoors, whether they should
stay outside and any should receive
any other special instructions about
them.
At the second class Sally McNichol,
the teacher at the Clinton Early
Childhood Education Centre, spoke to
theteenagers on childhood behavior.
Two films on young children and a
discussion on toys took place.
Accident prevention, rales when
babysitting at night, handling
emergencies such as fires andin-
truders and treating injuries in-
cluding burns, poisoning, outs,
choking, bumps and falls were all
taught at the third clash; To help in
the instruction local nurses gave
some pointers and a practice session
on dealing with these problems was
held, .
- At the last session on November 13,
,the students took a short test on the
material taken in the course. The 16
question examination required a
passing mark of 60 per cent and
certificates were given out to the
students.
The ._ trained,sitters, wh
are always looking for work, included
Marnie Gibbings, Karen Wright, Julie
Johnston, Christine Caldwell, Jamie
Verbeek, Marrianne Reinhart, Tracy
Middleton, Kerry Schmidt, Travis
Lyden, Troy Falconer, Karen Cook,
'Stacey Charten and Kim Cook.
M1
CLINTON NWS -RECORD, TH II
Tea
back .4)A
•
bargaining
•
DA",NQVEM
Tuckersmith....
• from page].
community centre and Exeter on
Tuesday, Dee,enab r 16 from 2 to 8 pm
at the South Huron Community
Centre. ,
The clinics are to be held by the
Huron County. Health Unit in co-
operatuion with the Health of Animals
Branch on the Canadian Department
of Agriculture, Seaforth.
Reeve Sillery, Deputy Reeve
Robert Bell and . Clerk McLachan
were named to arrange for the •
Christmas party to be held by council'
for all members of council and their
spouses and township employees and
spouses, newly elected members to
council and members appointed to
council committees and their spouses.
I remember the time—, I went
into the kitchen and found my two-
year-old charge ready to swallow
the goldfish, or the time, when the
tiny baby I was looking after
wouldn't stop hiccuping. •
"Mum," I'd cry into the phone,
"what am I supposed to do now."
Thank heavens for mum and her
experienced child raising advice,
maybe I should have given her half
of my babysitting money.
But those few extra dollars were
precious when I was a teenager
and they weren't easy to earn.
The Friday and'Saturday nights I
spent babysitting; the neighbor kids
were always Tong ones and by
midnight I was always fighting to
-keep my eyes open. By 1.; 30 Mille
mvrniif`g7 i' -d ma/1y V m praying -
that the. parents would soon come
home, all I wanted to do was to
crawl into my own warm little bed.
By that time I'd be completely
worn out. The kids would have
devored all the potato chips, ice
cream and pop in the house, gotten
sick three times and put up a World
War II styled battle before going to
bed.
At last there would be peace and °
quiet, until the dog started howling
outside, the wind and rain would
beat against the windows and a
strange car would , pull into the
drive. With any luck, thearents
woulcleave me a blanket that I
could crawl under until the worst
t
was over.
•
Then there was the time that
hoards of mice stampeded over
every piece of furniture in the
house or when the upstairs hall
light burned out and I couldn't find
my way to the bathroom or the
kid's room.
I . still break out in a cold sweat
when I recall the time I had to
change my first dirty diaper.
Luckily mum was right by the
telephone to give me step-by-step
instructions and after three tries, I
finally had the strange outfit
secured. It took the rest of the
evening to calm the baby after I
accidently stabbed her with the
safety pin. I had to content myself
with wads of toilet paper wrapped
around my thumb to _stop the Y
bleeding from a similar wound.
Luckily babysitting is not quite
the same as it used to be. Parents
may still busy getting ready to go
out, but now the teenagers are
recognizing that babysitting is not
an easy, but a responsible job.
Through courses offered by
various groups in the community,
they are learning how to deal with
the common problems that can' be
encountered when Looking after ,
youngsters and are also prepared '
to deal With unexpected
emergencies.
It's time for the babysitter to
take the limelight, not the sweet,- little kids who like to play cowboy
and Indians with their guardian.
Babysitting is not an easy way to makesome
money. A group of Clinton area teenagers learned
this at a four week babysitting course sponsored by
the Clinton Kinettes. The students included, front
row, left to right, Troy Falconer, Travis Lyden and
Jamie Verbeek. Second row, Julie Johnston,
'unny"crop season now over
Christine Caldwell, Karen Cook and Kim Cook.
Back row, Karen Wright, Stacey Charten, Marnie
Gibbings, instructor Bette Dalzell, Kerry Schmidt,
Tracy Middleton and Marriane• Reinhart. (Shelley
McPhee photo)
By Jim Fitzgerald
Except for a few acres
here and there, the 1980
crop season is now
history in Huron County,
and it will go down in the
books as one of the most
variable in Many years.
Don Pullen, Huron's ag
rep, said this week, that
the $55 million grain corn
crop is all done, and most
of the fall plowing
completed, despite .a
difficult wet and cool fall.
"It's been a real
struggle," he said, "field
conditions were bad. It
was. hard on equipment
and on people."
Mr. Pullen said 1980
was very strange year
indeed. Because of frosts,
the corn crop looked like
a write-off in June, then
by August it had bounced
back and was.looking.like
a bumper crop. However,
by September, because of
insect damage and root
rot, the crop fell short of
the average yield.
The stalk rot, which
caused . the corn to fall
over and lodge, likely
caused from five to a 15
per cent loss in yield, Mr.
Pullen said.
Because the it was
taken off before it fell
over, Huron's $18 million
silage corn crop only
suffered about a five per
cent yield loss.
"Taking the combined
total of grain and silage
corn, Huron County is the
provincial leader," Mr.
Pullen said.
Because of harvest
problems and,, mould,
soybeans fail'&Pto make
any further gains in the
county, but the crop,
worth nearly $3 million in
1979, did harvest well with
good yields, Mr. Pullen
reported.
The white bean crop,
which covered about the
same ground as last year,
33,000 acres, was an
another highly variable
crop, with mould hurting
some fields, while others
had bumper crops.
Commodity prices on
the corn and beans are at
three year highes,
"prices still haven't kept
pace with costs," Mr.
Pullen said.
Production costs have
skyrocketed in the past
year, with some crop
inputs, like fertilizer, up
30 per cent.
The winter wheat crop
in Huron, worth slightly
more than $5 million in
1979, looked like a bumper
crop until just as harvest
started, when a week-
long'wet spell reduced its
grade to livestock feed,.
costing county farmers
millions of dollars.
The wetter than normal
summer did give plenty
of hay and spring grains
for feed, so there's lots of
feed in the barns, Mr.
Pullen said.
other trends to come
out this year, said Mr.
Pullen, was the
questioning of the
monoculture practices of
cropping, such as con-
tinuous corn, andmore
crop rotation will show up
in future.
The Huron County Hoard of education and its
secondary school teaching force began
negotiations m. Clinton, Wednesday to iron out a
new one-year contract.
The negotiations have resumed between the
parties following the release of the factfinder's
report. Malcolm Stockton was appointed by the
Education Relations Commission on October 21
and his report was made public last week,
The sides had met on eight occasions prior to
the appointment of a factfinder and a board
release suggested the negotiations were
proceeding amicably. -
The factfinder's report has no weight under
comprehensive view of the stand of both parties
as well as an impartial perspective.
Herb Turkheim is the chairman ► of the
board's negotiating committee and Ed Beard of
F.E. Madill .. Secondary School, Wingham is
chairman of the secondary school teachers
committee.
The two key issues in the dispute centre on
the salary grid and staff allocation formula.
The board has offered a 5.1 per cent increase to
August 31, 1981 while the teachers are asking
for 15 per cent in a one-year agreement.
Champion graders
finally shipped out
A load of 45 Champion road graders left the
company's storage yard last week by rail on the
first leg of a journey to Uruguay.
The 45 Champion graders, valued at ap-
proximately $2.5 million, have been sitting in
the yard for months while financial documents
were being processed. The shipment left
Goderich . by rail in two stages for Montreal
where they will be shipped by freighter to
Uruguay, South America.
Company officials had examined the
feasibility of shippingthe graders by freighter
directly from Goderich but the alternate
method was chosen as a cost-saving measure.
WE WILL BE CLOSED
MONDAY, NOVEMBER 24 FOR COMPLETE
CARPET
A 5ESNHRMASAON WERE SORRY THE AN
INCONVENIENCE THIS MAY CAUSE.
BLUE FOUNT AIN_/
RESTAURANT & STEAK HOUSE
ALBERT'ST.
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CLINTON 482-3077
YOUR CHRISTMAS
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Now in stock - an excellent selec-
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