When I was growing up, I knew two things for sure: I would be a mom and I wanted to have a career, too. To practice for all the small people, I started babysitting professionally when I was nine, learning crowd control, patience, and other kid-specific tricks I still use to this day. I always thought I would have a lot of kids--like ten or twelve--until I got one child…and realized that is a lot of kids. I never knew another human being could captivate your heart and soul so completely until I brought my Keilana into the world and developed a mother instinct that wouldn’t quit. Ever. While I was waiting for Keilana to show up, I just assumed I would spend my maternity leave getting to know her and recovering, and then she would go to childcare and I would go to work and everything would be modern and peachy. Then the day came when I woke up early, dressed in my work clothes, packed the diaper bag, got my baby ready to go out the door…and burst into tears. Put my makeup back on, put my baby in the carseat, drove to the babysitter…and burst into tears. Forgot about the makeup, turned my sweet girl over to people I trusted completely, drove to work…and burst into tears. It pretty much went on like that all day. In Sarah Albee’s Elmo’s First Babysitter, Elmo gets used to being away from his parents. I wonder how they handled it.

http://www.amazon.com/Elmos-First-Babysitter-Jellybean-Books/dp/0375811494

http://muppet.wikia.com/wiki/Sarah_Albee