The Mum-Minder Read online

  I wonder if you used to be looked after by a child-minder while your mum went out to work?

  Or maybe, like Sadie in this book, your mum is a child-minder herself? I think child-minders do a wonderful job, but there's always the big problem. What happens when the child-minder gets ill? W h o gets to look after all the babies?

  I heard a bunch of young mums discussing this one day at a party and decided that this might make a good funny story. I had great fun inventing all the different naughty little children – and I think Nick's baby drawings are superb. I especially like the way he draws babies' hair with those little spiky bits on top (I have a similar hairstyle!).

  I used to have a friend called Dominic who kept begging me to put him into one of my children's books.

  "Go on, Jacky,' he'd say. 'I could be an animal if you like. I could be Dominic the Dragon or Dominic the Dinosaur. Or I could be just a little tiny sweet shy animal – Dominic the Vole?"

  So Sadie's little sister, Sara, loves her picture book Dominic the Vole and poor Sadie has to read it to her over and over again. I think Sadie's mum is very lucky to have such a kind helpful daughter.

  Also available by Jacqueline Wilson Published in Corgi Pups, for beginner readers: T H E DINOSAUR'S PACKED L U N C H

  T H E M O N S T E R STORY-TELLER

  Published in Young Corgi, for newly confident readers: LIZZIE Z I P M O U T H

  SLEEPOVERS

  Available from Doubleday/Corgi Yearling Books: BAD GIRLS

  T H E BED & BREAKFAST STAR

  BEST FRIENDS

  BURIED ALIVE!

  CANDYFLOSS

  T H E CAT M U M M Y

  CLEAN BREAK

  CLIFFHANGER

  T H E DARE GAME

  T H E D I A M O N D GIRLS

  DOUBLE ACT

  DOUBLE ACT (PLAY EDITION)

  GLUBBSLYME

  T H E ILLUSTRATED M U M

  JACKY DAYDREAM

  T H E LOTTIE PROJECT

  M I D N I G H T

  T H E M U M - M I N D E R

  SECRETS

  STARRING TRACY BEAKER

  T H E STORY OF TRACY BEAKER

  T H E SUITCASE KID

  VICKY ANGEL

  T H E WORRY WEBSITE

  Available from Doubleday/Corgi Books, for older readers: DUSTBIN BABY

  GIRLS IN LOVE

  GIRLS U N D E R PRESSURE

  GIRLS O U T LATE

  GIRLS IN TEARS

  KISS

  LOLA ROSE

  LOVE LESSONS

  Join the official Jacqueline Wilson fan club at

  www.jacquelinewilson.co.uk

  Illustrated by Nick Sharratt

  This eBook is copyright material and must not be copied, reproduced, transferred, distributed, leased, licensed or publicly performed or used in any way except as specifically permitted in writing by the publishers, as allowed under the terms and conditions under which it was purchased or as strictly permitted by applicable copyright law. Any unauthorised distribution or use of this text may be a direct infringement of the author’s and publisher’s rights and those responsible may be liable in law accordingly.

  Adobe ISBN: 9781407043494

  Version 1.0

  www.randomhouse.co.uk

  T H E MUM-MINDER

  A CORGI YEARLING BOOK 978 0 440 86825 5

  First published in Great Britain by Doubleday, an imprint of Random House Children's Books A Random House Group Company

  Doubleday edition published 1993

  First Corgi Yearling edition published 1994

  This Corgi Yearling edition published 2008

  1 3 5 7 9 10 8 6 4 2

  Copyright © Jacqueline Wilson, 1993

  Illustrations copyright © Nick Sharratt, 1993

  The right of Jacqueline Wilson to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

  All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior permission of the publishers.

  The Random House Group Limited makes every effort to ensure that the papers used in its books are made from trees that have been legally sourced from well-managed and credibly certified forests.

  Our paper procurement policy can be found at: www.randomhouse.co.uk/paper.htm

  Corgi Yearling Books are published by Random House Children's Books, 61–63 Uxbridge Road, London W5 5SA www. kidsatrandomhouse.co.uk

  www. rbooks.co.uk Addresses for companies within The Random House Group Limited can be found at:

  www.randomhouse.co.uk/offices.htm

  T H E RANDOM HOUSE GROUP Limited Reg. No. 954009

  A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.

  Printed in the UK by CPI Bookmarque, Croydon, CR0 4TD

  For the Dimwits who aren't dim at all, but are very witty

  It's half-term. No more stupid, bor-ing, silly old school for a whole week!

  Oh-oh. Maybe that's not tactful seeing as this is a school project.

  We've all got to keep a holiday diary.

  I've got to hand this in next Monday.

  I can't rub it out because it's written with my mum's biro and it would just make great blue smears all over the page. My baby sister Sara chewed my own pen up yesterday. My special red felt-tip pen which also doubles as a lipstick if I'm dressing up. Sara's not 9

  got all her teeth yet but she can't half chew. She looked like Dracula with all this red ink dripping down her chin.

  I felt really cross with her but that's babies for you. I get more than a bit fed up with babies sometimes. I am surrounded by them right this minute. Three-year-old Gemma

  10

  keeps pulling at my arm, wanting me to draw for her. Two-year-old Vincent is drawing himself, making horrible scribbles on the back of a paper bag.

  Baby Clive is having a yell because Mum's put him down for a nap and he doesn't feel like it. And Sara's sitting on my foot, bouncing up and down, wanting a ride.

  They're not all my brothers and sisters. No fear. My sister Sara's quite enough to be going on with.

  No, my mum's a childminder. She doesn't have to mind me. I'm Sadie and I'm nearly nine. I can mind myself, easy-peasy. I can look after Sara too. I sometimes get up in the night and give her a bottle. And I play with her and I take her out for a walk in her pushchair. I do a lot of things for my mum and all. I make her a cup of tea when she's tired and I've got this knack of massaging her feet which she loves.

  T don't know what I'd do without you, Sadie,' she says.

  11

  We don't see much of my dad nowa-days, but it doesn't matter.

  'Us girls will stick together, eh?'

  says Mum, and sometimes I climb up on her lap as well as Sara and we all have a big hug together.

  12

  I quite like my mum being a childminder because she's always there when I get home from school. The only t r o u b l e is in t h e holidays.

  Babies don't have holidays. They don't have half-terms either. Mum gets lumbered with t h e m all t h e time.

  If it was just Mum and me then

  this half-term would be great. We could go down to the shops and look round at all the clothes and the toys and choose what we'd buy if we had all the money in the world. Or we could go to the Leisure Centre and have a swim in the pool. They've got a big wave machine and all my

  friends say it's smashing. Or we could play t h a t I'm a lady too and we could go and have a pot of tea and a Danish pastry each and have a good gossip in a proper restaurant. But you can't go shopping or swimming or e a t i n g w h e n you've got fo
ur babies. My sister Sara would be bad enough. But if we've got Gemma and 13

  Vincent and little Clive as well then it's impossible.

  Nan usually helps. She acts as

  Mum's assistant. She's got another job working in a pub at nights but she doesn't mind giving Mum a hand too. You need lots and lots of hands with all those babies. But Nan

  phoned up this morning and said she couldn't make it. Grandad's off work with the flu. My grandad's like a great big baby himself. Nan's going to be busy looking after him for a few days.

  'Never mind, Mum. I'll be your assistant,' I said. 'Good job I'm off school, eh?'

  So I've done my best. It hasn't been easy. Especially when we went out for a walk and called in at the corner shop. Mum uses a double buggy and I carried Sara but it was still a job carting them around. And then Sara started shrieking in the shop because she wanted Smarties, and Gemma

  picked a packet of jelly off the shelf 14

  and wouldn't let go, and Vincent went rushing round the corner and barged straight into a pile of toilet rolls and knocked them all over the place, and Clive yelled his head off all the time.

  He's been yelling all day. It doesn't half get on your nerves. It's given Mum a headache. She looks ever so white and tired. Hang on. I know what I'll do.

  Later

  Well I've made Mum a cup of tea.

  She's had a couple of aspirins too, though they don't look as if they're h e l p i n g m u c h . I've given Clive another bottle and he's got off to 16

  sleep. I've sat on the sofa with the others and read them this story about Dominic the Vole. Dominic the Vole is fat and funny and he's always getting into trouble. (Very like my little sister Sara.) Gemma liked the story and wanted me to read it again, but Vincent got fidgety and Sara kept wanting to hold the book herself but when I let her she bit right into it.

  Dominic the Vole has got teethmarks across his bottom now.

  'You're being the childminder

  today, Sadie,' Mum said. 'I'd better give you half my wages.'

  17

  'Are you feeling better now, Mum?'

  'Yes,' said Mum, but she didn't sound sure. She sneezed suddenly.

  'You sound as if you're getting a cold, Mum,' I said.

  'No I'm not,' said Mum, and then she sneezed again. She blew her nose.

  'Just a little sniffle, that's all. I'm OK. I'll take over the kids now, Sadie. You can go out and play.'

  Later still

  I had a good game with my friend Rachel up the road, but I kept looking in on Mum. She looked whiter t h a n ever and she was shivering. The babies were all being very boisterous.

  I knew Mum was longing to get shot of them all. Well, she's got to put up with Sara all the time, but t h a t can't be helped.

  Clive's mum usually comes first because her chocolate shop closes at half-past five. But she's going to a babywear party tonight so she asked 18

  Mum to have him for the whole evening. And then Vincent's mum r a n g up and said the trains were up the spout and she'd be late getting back from the office to pick him up. And then, to crown it all, Gemma's mum phoned to say she'd arrested someone

  – she's a policewoman, you see – and she'd probably be an hour or so later t h a n planned.

  'That's OK,' Mum said to Clive's mum and Vincent's mum and Gemma's mum.

  'But you don't feel well, Mum,' I said.

  'Us girls have got to stick together,'

  said Mum.

  So she looked after all the babies. I put Sara to bed and then, by the time we'd got rid of Vincent and Gemma and at long last Clive, Mum said she felt so shattered she wanted to go to bed too.

  She was so tired I had to help her undress and then I tucked her up under the covers and gave her a kiss.

  19

  'You're being a mum-minder now,'

  said Mum.

  20

  We didn't get off to a good start today. Sara was awake half the night and Mum had to keep getting up to her. So she was so tired she slept right through her alarm and we

  didn't wake up until Vincent's mum rang the doorbell.

  'Oh no,' said Mum.

  Something seemed to have hap-

  pened to her voice overnight. She sounded more like my dad than my mum.

  She stumbled downstairs in her

  21

  nightie, croaking to me to put the kettle on. Sara started yelling for attention so I put my head round her door.

  'Ook,' she said proudly.

  She was standing up in her cot, hanging on to the rail, bouncing her fat little feet. She'd m a n a g e d to unpop her pyjamas and her nappy.

  She suddenly stood still and started weeing, a look of wonder on her face.

  'Sara!' I shouted, and snatched her out of the cot b u t I was several seconds too late. It looked like the whole of Sara's bedding was going to have to go in the washing machine.

  'You're a bad girl. Poor Mum's feeling rotten and you're just making things worse for her,' I said severely.

  'Yup,' said Sara, and giggled.

  I bundled her under one arm and went downstairs to see to the kettle.

  Vincent's mum was in the kitchen, stalking about in her high heels, looking a bit tetchy because we were in such a muddle. She was holding 22

  Vincent warily, not wanting him to dribble down her smart suit. Vincent is getting a back tooth and has turned into a human waterfall.

  'Sorry I overslept,' Mum mumbled.

  'Here, I'll take Vincent. You get off to work now, you don't want to be late.'

  'Yes, well, I have got this very important meeting this morning,'

  said Vincent's mum, but she looked 23

  at my mum a bit worriedly. 'Are you all right? You don't look very well,'

  she said, absent-mindedly slotting Vincent into the highchair in the kitchen.

  Sara started shrieking indignantly in my arms. It's her highchair and she doesn't care to share it. Vincent s t a r t e d shouting too because his mum wasn't watching what she was doing and was bending one of his legs backwards.

  ' I ' m fine,' said Mum, unhooking Vincent's leg and taking the struggling Sara from me.

  'You don't look fine,' said Vincent's mum.

  'I've just got a little sniffle, that's all,' said Mum.

  Vincent's mum didn't look con-

  vinced, but she had her important meeting so she whisked off sharpish.

  Mum let Sara slide off her lap and rested her head in her arms.

  'I think you'd better go back to bed, Mum,' I said.

  24

  'No, I'm OK, love, really,' said Mum. 'Well, I will be when I've had a nice cup of tea.'

  Gemma and her mum turned up

  while we were still having breakfast.

  Gemma's mum let me try on her

  police hat while she had a cup of tea too. I frisked Gemma and cautioned Vincent and made some handcuffs 25

  out of tinfoil and captured Sara but she simply chewed her way free.

  Mum had two cups of tea and said she felt much better. She didn't look better at all. She was white with black rings round her eyes, just like Sara's toy panda.

  She was still sneezing.

  'Sorry about my cold,' Mum sniffed.

  'I'll try not to give it to the kids.'

  'You sound as if you've got a bit more t h a n a cold,' said Gemma's mum. 'I feel a bit mean leaving you to cope, especially as your mum can't come. But I've got to go to court this morning, so I've really got to leave Gemma with you.'

  'That's all right. We'll manage, don't worry,' said Mum, and she looked at me.

  I sighed. It looked like I was going to be reading Dominic the Vole until I was blue in the face.

  Gemma's m u m pushed off and

  Mum crawled away to get washed

  and dressed. She tried putting on a 26

  bit of make-up so t h a t she didn't look so bad, but it just looked weird –

  white face, black eyes and bright red lipstick. Mum's nose w
as getting red to match because she was having to wipe it so often.

  'It's j u s t a little cold. I won't b r e a t h e on t h e baby,' M u m told Clive's mum.

  'I think my Clive's got a bit of a cold himself,' said Clive's mum. 'He's in a bit of a bad mood today. Got the grizzles and won't stop.'

  27

  'Oh,' said Mum weakly, and rubbed her forehead.

  'Have you got a headache?' said Clive's mum.

  'Just a bit,' said Mum.

  'Are you sure you haven't got flu?'

  said Clive's mum. 'There's a lot of it about.'

  'No, no,' said Mum. 'Of course I haven't.'

  Clive's mum went off to her chocolate shop and we were left with all the babies.

  'Don't worry, I'll give you a hand, Mum,' I said, but then my friend Rachel from up the road came round to see if I wanted to go over to her house to watch videos.

  'I can't really. I've got to help my mum because she's not feeling well,' I said.

  'I'm feeling fine,' Mum said determinedly. 'You go round to Rachel's and have a bit of fun, Sadie.'

  So I did. Rachel and I watched a Walt Disney video and then her dad 28

  went out to do the shopping and we watched this really scary monster video i n s t e a d , fast f o r w a r d i n g through the worst bits. Then we took turns being the Monster Blob and obliterating each other, and I was having such good fun I forgot all about Mum and the Monster Blobby Babies.

  I was very late getting back. And oh dear. Clive was in his carrycot, bellowing fit to bust. Gemma had the television turned up too loud and was fiddling with the knobs to make it even louder. Vincent was crayoning all over the wall with Mum's red lipstick. Sara had chewed an entire corner off the Dominic the Vole book so t h a t his little snout and one whole paw were missing. And Mum was

  sitting in the middle of the floor with great big tears running down her cheeks.