By Corinne LestchThe Daily Northwestern
“I need help snapping my pants,” said four-and-a-half-year-old Andrew Klearman excitedly as he flung the bathroom door open. His sister, two-and-a-half-year-old Caroline, sat at the miniature table in the playroom.
Both are overseen by baby sitter and School of Education and Social Policy senior Claire Igoe, who has known them since they were infants. Igoe also taught their swim class at the Sports Pavilion and Aquatic Center.
“The water was absolutely freezing, but the kids still loved the class,” said mother Saralyn Sacks of the first time she met Igoe. “She was just amazing, positive and had total control over all these screaming six-month-olds.”
Igoe, who has been baby-sitting since sixth grade, said she has grown especially attached to the Klearman children because she has baby-sat for them since she was a freshman. When Igoe was deciding where to live in Evanston last year, she said the family offered her a room in their house and she found it to be the best option.
“I go upstairs at 7 every morning and wake the kids,” Igoe said. “I just go through the morning routine: We have to get dressed, brush teeth and then I do Caroline’s hair.”
At about 8 a.m., the nanny arrives and Igoe has the rest of the day to herself until the nanny leaves in the evening.
“There’s a lot more play time at night,” she said. “Sometimes their parents go out of town and I stay with the kids for the whole weekend, so I take them to the museum or the beach.”
While Michael Klearman, Sacks’ husband, and Sacks knew Igoe before she began to baby-sit for them, other local parents have put multiple ads in The Daily to draw Northwestern students. Wilmette resident Dani Dale, who has a two-and-a-half-year-old daughter and another child on the way, said she has placed an ad every day for the past week for a non-smoker who has “excellent references” and “experience with toddlers,” but she hasn’t gotten much response.
Dale said only one student responded. “I’ve never done an ad in the paper before so I wasn’t sure what to expect from it.”
Kenilworth resident Michelle Malca, a mother of three, has put ads for baby sitters in The Daily for the past 10 years, and she said she has had great experience with each NU student with whom she has worked.
Each mother said she thinks a dependable person who enjoys being around children is a requirement for a good baby sitter.
“When I was in high school, I baby-sat a lot, and if it’s the right family and the right person then it could be a good match,” Dale said. “I think it can pay pretty nicely as opposed to other jobs like … working on campus somewhere.”
Klearman and Sacks said they have not yet advertised for a new baby sitter, but they are looking for a reliable, mature student once Igoe graduates.
“A lot of kids would be competent to baby-sit, but you kind of have to want to baby-sit,” Klearman said. “It takes a certain type of person, someone who has to have a certain maturity and a flexible schedule.”
Reach Corinne Lestch at [email protected].
