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The Babysitter’s Here!

I have loved this song by Dar Williams ever since I first heard it a couple of decades ago.

Dar Williams

Ms. Williams weaves together several fundamental human themes — the value of role models, the heartbreakingly inevitable connection between love and loss, the challenge of female/male power dynamics, and the significance of being trusted — within the framework of a story told by a child about their beloved babysitter.

It is masterful songwriting.

I released it two weeks ago to coincide with the start of the school year here in Massachusetts.

I have several friends whose almost-grownup children are entering college — and they have shared with me that they are feeling simultaneously grateful/proud that their kids are becoming adults AND heart-broken/shocked that their kids are old enough to leave the family nest.

Deep breath in.

Deep breath out.

I do not remember having many babysitters when I was a child.

There was one, however — maybe a friend my mother met at a painting class? — who taught me and my siblings how to cook eggplant moussaka from scratch.

We happily prepared that meal again and again during our child and teen years following her recipe.

It was delicious!

The theme of trust and trustworthiness in Dar’s wonderful song very much reminds me of how respected I felt as a young adult when I was hired to help take care of three small children (one each from three families) who had all dropped out of the same pre-school together.

I myself had recently dropped out of college, and it was a very powerful — and healing — experience to be entrusted with these three little human beings.

Parents have to tap into a deep well of trust to let someone else take care of their children.

Without a lot of interviewing and no background checks, I and two other twenty-somethings were hired to have fun adventures with these three children in shifts during the day while their parents — who were architects, college professors and a child psychiatrist — worked.

We were given the keys to one of their cars (a Saab), three car seats, and a little spending money in case we needed to stop at a grocery store or bakery for treats during the day.

The parents also gave us a book on child development by Penelope Leach from which I learned that I could follow the children’s lead and let them to explore their curiosity/interests — which included (among other things) ants and dogs and pistachios and flowers.

One of my favorite memories is driving with them to a wonderful nature area — the Punkatasset Preserve in Concord, MA — and wandering very slowly up and down the trails so that we could pause whenever something caught the children’s attention.

Their interest in flowers led me to serve them food — such as apple slices, carrot sticks, chunks of cheese — in flower patterns on their plates.

This is something I still love to do with food.

Here’s a tomato flower I made recently from produce given to me by a neighbor with a farm share from an organic farm just over the border in Lexington, MA (about which I have written in a previous blog post).

They are so beautiful…and nutritious!

Plants are truly amazing.

How are they able to capture and transform energy — radiating from a nearby star! — into something delicious we can eat here on planet earth?

What a miraculous blessing…

Another deep breath in.

And deep breath out.

Last week I listened to a interview on YouTube in which an artist manager explained that Spotify’s algorithms seem to reward folks who release music on a monthly basis — and that if one is able to do this for 18-24 months, an exponential increase in streams sometimes kicks in…

This is what he has discerned from the streaming patterns of music released in recent years by a dozen independent musicians he is working with…

I have seen a significant (for me) increase in streams for the six songs which I have released (every three weeks) since the middle of April this year.

My recording of “The Babysitter’s Here,” for example, has gotten more streams (598) on Spotify in two weeks than many of the songs I first released have gotten in two years.

So I am going to stick with my plan to release a song every 3-4 weeks for the next 19 months and see if an exponential increase kicks in…

Thank you to everyone who has been streaming my songs on Spotify, Pandora, Apple Music, YouTube and other streaming platforms.

You are welcome to click and listen to “The Babysitter’s Here” on many streaming platforms.

And any song you “like” or “heart” or add to a playlist will improve the algorithmic activity of my music there.

You are also welcome to visit my website — where you can learn more about my musical life (including upcoming gigs) here on planet earth if you are curious.

Thank you to Dar Williams for writing such a delightful song.

Thank you to the families who trusted me many years ago to take care of their precious children.

Thank you to Doug Hammer for his sublime piano playing AND his patient engineering expertise.

Thank you to the generous photographers and graphic designers at Pixabay — and to my friend Carolyn for the lovely photo she took of.a rainbow from her living room window.

Thank you to Stephen C. Fischer for transforming photos from earlier parts of my life into graphic designs for my current song releases.

Thank you to my neighbors for sharing their beautiful vegetables with me.

And most of all, thank YOU for reading — and listening to — another one of my blog posts!

31 thoughts on “The Babysitter’s Here!”

  1. Hi Will–I also loved this song of Dar Williams from the first time I heard it on the radio. My daughter and I have seen her in person a few times.
    Your version is delightful (my husband agrees). I like the photo of you and the rainbow is beautiful!

    I imagine those children you cared for remember you fondly. 💙

    Reply

    • Thank you (and your husband!) for listening to another one of my recordings! I do not know how much any of these children might remember me. I have learned that it is the PARENTS of small children (such as those in my Music Together classes) who remember me years later, but not their children… And I certainly have no memories of teachers or babysitters from when I was a small child. Maybe some wisp of my energy is coded subconsciously into their life histories… Deep breath in. And deep breath out.

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  2. This is a wonderful post Will, filled with so much goodness! I love the song and lyrics, and applaud your plan to release songs routinely to build listeners and revenues. I too felt honored to be entrusted with children to babysit, but your experience sounds much more fun and engaging. I’m glad you were able to let them follow their interests and develop a connection with nature. Such a wonderful gift. Kudos my friend.

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  3. This is such a delightful post, Will. Love the song, your rendition, and your description about your own days as a “babysitter.” Very glad to hear your streaming audience is growing—well-deserved!

    Reply

    • THANK YOU for your enthusiastic feedback. I truly appreciate it. The song that’s gotten the most streams on Spotify — to my surprise — is “Democracy Is Under Attack” (https://songwhip.com/willmcmillan/democracy-is-under-attack). I had thought that cover versions of standards would be more popular than my original songs, but I am happy to have been proven wrong! “Waltzing With COVID-19” also has over 1000 streams on Spotify since I released it three months ago. Deep breath in. Deep breath out.

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      • It is great—and I realize now that I’d heard it before. Question: when singing about climate change, you say we need a new quarterback. Would you care to say who or what you were thinking about then?

      • When I wrote the song, I mostly needed a rhyme that ended in “ack.” That’s why I sang “quarterback. Also my sweetheart used to play football in high school and we watch a LOT of football games on TV (that’s when I do a lot of my postcard/letter campaign handwriting). I have thought about it, however, since I wrote this song, and nowadays I feel as though people like Greta Thunberg, Robert Hubbell, Heather Coxe Richardson, and Simon Rosenberg are my new quarterbacks — rather than media pundits, for example, or many politicians…

  5. Eggplant Moussaka…what a great memory from a babysitter. The impact of a babysitter is much like the impact of a child’s first teacher. In the words of my father, “You only get one chance to make a first impression.” He really understood. As a teacher of little ones, I know how important it is to make a difference or leave a memory. I wish I could make eggplant moussaka, but I sing and read aloud. Speaking of singing, it makes perfect sense that if you are ‘out there’ releasing a song every 3-4 weeks, there will definitely be an increase. Best to you, Will.

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  6. Love the organic farm share! Those tomatoes look delicious. And give your empty nester friends a hug from me. I thought it would be “no big deal” but wow–it really can be gut-wrenching!

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  8. What a delightful post, Will. I love the babysitter song. it is full of such great memories for many. Caring for children is an awesome responsibility. Those eggs look perfect!

    Reply

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