The Babysitter

It seems important to mention, since I am somewhat "old school" with my views on who watches my kids.  I won't ever understand how a Mom can leave her child with a babysitter all week, all day long. Even with that said, if it's what is necessary to maintain  the family income, and it doesn't riddle you with guilt, who am I to judge.
When  Cody's dad moved out, he skipped town.  He said he had to get away to recover from our breakup.  Like it was so tragic.  Well it was tragic for me and Cody.  Not because Phil moved out, that was refreshing. I was freaking on what to do with Cody when I worked? I was working at a restaurant for about 7 years, so I had a fairly flexible schedule, working mainly nights. My parents, they were out of the question. I would have chose unemployment before asking for their help.  Imagine my step mom, who believed at the time Cody was not behaving normally, because I wasn't a good mom.  She didn't think I could do anything right.  My house wasn't clean enough, because she was a clean freak ( now we'd call it OCD), she also had TMJ, so she flipped out on loud sounds, just like my ex-husband (WTF), and she would have searched my house till she found something illegal, and have the police waiting when I got home.  Of course my dad would have slept through it all.
 *Sidebar* I know this sounds awful and I can't believe I'm even mentioning this, but since no ones reading my blog except for me, I'll say it anyway.  My step-mom was a bitch, unloving and a slave driver.  She affected each and every one of us kids in a negative way.  I wonder if things would have been better for all my siblings if when I was 5 or 6 I would have pushed her down the stairs and she flew through the window, cutting her jugular vein, causing her to die. I would have taken it for the team, do my three years in Ju-ve and returned just in time to begin 4th grade. I'm just saying no more TMJ bitch.LOL Hey,  It was the 60's and 70's, no one was there to protect the kids. And please don't judge me on what I just wrote.  I was trying to be funny, which helps me cope with the shitty things.
So getting back on what to do about a sitter for Cody. I don't think I can say enough about Cody's Grandparents on his dad's side.  Judy and Jerry I consider to be the grandparents all kids should have growing up. I'm  still confused on what happened to Phil, but I could count on them for anything.  They loved Cody no matter how different he seemed.  They didn't judge me, although I'm sure looking back, I deserved a few stern lectures from them. Jerry and Judy would babysit cody 2 nights a week, so I still needed help when I worked the other 2-3 nights.  In the paper (it was before computers), I saw an ad about a babysitter right down the street from me, and reluctantly I set up a meeting to interview this lady.