Lisa's job was primarily looking after the two-year-old toddler, Luca. She knew that children in this age range were in their exploratory phase. They wanted to wander around all the time. They wanted to explore everything. They wanted to touch everything. This child in particular was confined to a room. Lisa would play with the baby in the labyrinth. She played with a toy kitchen that the baby had. She built puzzles. She played for hours and hours and hours.
The baby was never tired. Lisa was busy all the time. She was always playing something with one of the children. Or she was exploring the unknown world with the baby. Every day she had to rediscover the whole world with the baby. But, she was confined to the labyrinth and toys in the baby's room.
Once, her host family went to a folk festival. They left the toddler at home with Lisa. The parents knew that the baby would cry the whole time if they brought him alone. So, Lisa stayed home alone in the giant house with the baby. They were essentially locked in a small room. They played for hours and hours that day. It must have been five or six. They were playing with the little plastic kitchen, pretending that they were cooks.
"B-butter, bre-ead, honey," the toddler tried to pronounce the words. " Bre-ead, b-butter, " he repeated. These were the only words the baby could say. Lisa listened to him attempt to say these words every single day, eight hours a day.
Around the sixth hour, Lisa realized she had to pee. The baby had taken off to sit in the corner and play with a puzzle. Lisa thought about what she was going to do.
"Do I take the baby with me?" she asked herself out loud. She watched him playing with the puzzle.
"No. He isn't my child." She figured he would be fine while she quickly ran to the bathroom. At the moment, the child was busy with the puzzle and ignored Lisa. Lisa thought that theoretically nothing bad could happen if she left the toddler alone for a very short time.
"Okay," Lisa thought, "I have only thirty seconds to run to the bathroom and come back."
Two minutes later, Lisa came back. The child was still busy with the puzzle. They played until evening.
At dinner, Lisa was informed that Luca had broken the TV.
"You are guilty for this, Lisa. You shouldn't have left the baby alone," the host parents yelled. Lisa felt bad enough without the parents yelling at her. She didn't mean to let the baby wander off. She didn't think anything was going to happen while she was gone for a few minutes.
"The baby probably saw the remote control and pressed it very hard. One must never leave the kids alone,"Lisa thought.
"I was with the child every second. I only left to pee," she explained herself.
"It doesn't matter. It's your job to take care of the child. You're doing a bad job taking care of him, obviously," Nick yelled at her. Lisa didn't bother responding to the child.
"Did you think about what would happen while you were gone?" the parents continued.
"Babies put their fingers into an electrical sockets, Lisa," Nick yelled in the background.
Lisa shook her head again. She wasn't a mother. She didn't know that leaving a toddler alone for three minutes would give them enough time to hurt themselves.
"Now we have to pay for the repair. Or, maybe you should have to pay since it happened on your watch," they continued.
"Children, Lisa is only human and not a robot. Sometimes she has to visit the bathroom," the grandmother said, trying to protect her.
Lisa sighed. She had to pee. She was only human, after all. Maybe they wanted her to be a robot. Or, to wear a diaper for seven hours so she wouldn't leave the baby to use the washroom. Lisa was so inexperienced that she could not imagine that if she left the child alone for only some minutes, he would instantly do something bad.
Lisa thought her host family hated her. Although, she was not guilty at all. Luckily, her host family didn't make her pay for the repairs.