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1
Introduction
“A good babysiter is hard come by,” explained a reporer on
CBS News
 during he summer o 2007.
1
A year earlier, a moher blogged ha“babysiters seem o care nohing abou kids and charge $16 an hour o wach V and ex message heir boyriends.”
2
And hen, o course, re-pored
 Living Safely
magazine in he 1990s, here were he “horror sories:parens arriving home o nd heir siter has hrown a pary, or gone oone. . . .”
3
Inrinsic o such ypical complains is a longing or he goldenage o babysiting when eenage girls were boh pleasan and pleniul. Yehe view ha babysiters oday are hard o ake and even harder o ndis no new. In a leter o “Dear Abby” in 1969, one woman described he bach o hungry siters “who ae he ridge o he bare walls” and dispar-aged he one wih “he gall” o raid he “deep reeze.”
4
Wha is unknown ohese recen observers is ha a prior idyllic age o babysiting is more ap-paren han real: disressed paren-employers have suspeced heir siterso doing wrong ever since he beginning o babysiting nearly one hundred years ago. In ac, paren-employers have been complaining abou babysi-ers since he adven o he “modern” American eenage girl, a debu hacoincided wih he creaion o babysiting, he job ha deauled o whie,middle-class, emale adolescens by virue o heir sex, race, class, and age.Tough researchers have daed anxieies abou babysiters o he ex-pansion o babysiting aer World War II, babysiters had already earnedconsiderable nooriey by hen.
5
I was during he 1920s—when babysi-ing was jus in is inancy—ha one parening guide rs urged moh-ers no o hire “high school girls” who rundled “babies abou o hockey games, baskeball pracice, and [engaged in] sree-corner iraion.”
6
Ashe “babysiter” gained ground during he Grea Depression (when he word was originaed hough rarely used), advisers ocused on he un-kemp clohing and garish cosmeics o emale adolescens suspecedo preerring heir “crowd” o riends o he kids in heir care. Ten, de-spie atemps o make scandalous V-girls ino parioic babysiters during World War II,
 Newsweek
repored ha a veeran and his wie arrived home
 
2 Introduction
aer an evening ou only o nd heir “bobby-soxer” babysiter dancing wih riends and heir oddler eehing on marbles.
7
Represened as vil-lains who have caused danger, and as vicims who have coured i, in heinnumerable sories aduls have been elling or almos a cenury, babysi-ers have osensibly damaged propery, ruined marriages, and desroyedamilies.Tough mos oen babysiting proceeds wihou a serious hich, heproblems associaed wih i have been widely and someimes wanonly exaggeraed on many levels, rom he conversaional o he culural. Inmovies (popular, pornographic, made-or-V, and horror), newspapers,magazines, music, elevision, caroons, een cion, si-coms, comics, man-uals, urban legends, oys, and oher sources upon which his sudy draws, babysiters have been deemed harmul raher han helpul. Te omnipres-en babysiter has been noorious or sneaking her boyriend in he back door, alking on he elephone, siting glued o he V, eaing her employ-ers ou o house and home, and neglecing he children while paying oomuch atenion o he man o he house.
8
Tis decepively simple sereo-ype o he unruly babysiter expresses he anxieies o parens as well ashe concerns o he culure abou eenage girls. Le o do as hey please,girls will recklessly ransgress he essenial boundaries beween privae andpublic, amily and communiy, labor and leisure, childhood and adulhood,girlhood and womanhood, love and lus, realiy and anasy, culure andchaos, yours and heirs.Bu are eenage girls who babysi really mischie makers, home wreck-ers, husband sealers, child abusers, kidnappers, hieves, and whores, ashey have been variously imagined? Wha accouns or he deeply in-grained siter sereoype encoded in he many anecdoes and parables haparens rouinely hear rom one anoher and see in he mass media? Why hasn’ he babysiter earned disincion insead o eliciing dread? Whahas she mean o aduls and, jus as imporanly, o he generaions o girls who babysa? Te rs aim o his book is o inerrogae aduls’ as-sumpions abou eenage girls hey suspec o jeopardizing he saey o heir children, he securiy o heir homes, and even he sanciy o heirmarriages.In his social and culural hisory I argue ha wha aduls’ enduringanxieies abou babysiters reveal is unease abou he ar-reaching genderand generaional changes ha gave rise o he “modern” American een-age girl, whose emergence coincided wih he creaion o he babysiter in
 
Introduction 3
he 1920s. Tereaer, he babysiter’s highly charged posiion as a youh-ul sranger overseeing children wihin he privacy o he American homemade he babysiter a lighning rod or he expression o aduls’ proounduncerainies abou he unprecedened possibiliies o eenage girls. Fornearly one hundred years he babysiter has sood a he indeerminae boundary beween aduls’ unresolved dilemma over he benes o emaleadolescen empowermen and he hrea o girls’ independence. I also argueha in an ongoing atemp o resolve conics over he naure o girlhood, babysiting has uncioned as a primary sie or girls’ social rehabiliaion.Since he emergence o babysiting early in he wenieh cenury, he ac-culuraion o girls in he uiliarian aspecs o babysiting has urhered anessenial and enduring ideological endeavor: o allow girls a modicum o independence while reinorcing he domesic and maernal imperaive. While no American worker has been more consisenly disparaged hanhe iconic sel-absorbed babysiter who sudies her ngernails insead o cuddling he kids, his book also aims o documen babysiters’ subjeciv-iy as well as heir subjecion by making hisorically visible he job haserved as he ambiguous gaeway o emale employmen and young wom-anhood hroughou he wenieh cenury. Tough overlooked as hisori-cally signican or mos o he cenury, babysiters appear as helpul, con-ened, and graeul workers in recen synheses on he hisory o childrenand youh.
9
In ruh, since he beginnings o babysiting, girls have ex-pressed more ambivalence han enhusiasm abou heir designaed socialrole. Tis hisory sheds ligh on he perspecives o girls whose lives wereshaped by he realiy ha, hroughou mos o he cenury, babysiting washe only job available o girls. Te less oen heard sories abou babysitingha have been a par o girls’ everyday lives include persuasive complainsabou impeuous, irresponsible, insensiive, and unappreciaive employers.Girls’ sories—which go back o he earlies days o babysiting—go aroward explaining why eenage girls have been leaving he eld o babysi-ing ever since i rs emerged.While babysiting has served as he main por o enry or emale em-ploymen, i has always been much more han jus a casual par-ime jobor girls or a soluion o he everyday needs o ordinary parens. On a so-cial and culural level, babysiting has aimed o reconcile a dichoomy hagrew more conspicuous over he course o he wenieh cenury. Girlsincreasingly negoiaed beween adolescen sel-asseriveness, rebellious-ness, sexual experimenaion, and auonomy on one side, and eminine
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