When Laura Cline, freshman in family studies and human services, was in middle school and high school, she realized she could make $50 on a Saturday night.

"I could say yes or no and get homework done," she said.

This started Cline on what she said has been a profitable and flexible line of business - baby-sitting.

n LIFE EXPERIENCE

After Cline came to Manhattan, she said she decided to continue sitting and tried to find a way to make herself available. While searching, Cline said she found the K-State's Career and Employment Services Web site listed postings from several families seeking someone to care for children.

Cline works for a few families in town and said she enjoys the opportunity to be off campus and have children around.

Over the years, Cline said she has worked with a variety of children, including some with anxiety disorders, ADHD, ADD or disciplinary problems.

"I've become extremely confident with all children," she said. "Using the disciplinary skills I've learned in the last eight years, being the authority figure - it becomes a second-parenting thing."

Caring for children is about adapting, Cline said.

"It's not just going over and popping in a video," she said.

Although Cline said she is confident in her abilities, she has had a few difficult experiences that have taught her a lot. When she was a senior in high school, Cline was left with a 6-week-old baby who was sick.

"I didn't have experience being with a kid that young," she said.

Cline said she stayed up that night, telling stories, singing and holding the baby.

"I was just holding him, having him cry," she said. "I'd done everything I could think of, which made me flash forward to when I have kids.

"You want so badly for them to lay down and fall to sleep. You just want everything to be within your control. I still remember that night, holding Ryan, so small and so helpless."

n A SECOND FAMILY

Kristina Kleinsasser, first-year veterinary student, cares for three children, Greyson, 5; Gage, 4; and Grace, 2. Their family is from Ashland, Kan., and drives to Manhattan for every basketball and football home-game weekend. Kleinsasser met the family through mutual friends and has been caring for the children for about one year.

One of the perks, she said, has been the ability to go to sporting events at K-State while caring for the children.

"I definitely sit in some pretty sweet seats," she said. "But I take a lot of bathroom breaks with three kids so I do miss parts of the game."

She also said the children like to read books, bake and decorate cookies, visit places around Manhattan and play hide and seek.

Kleinsasser, who is from South Dakota, said she began baby-sitting a long time ago, caring for younger cousins and children from her church. She recalled one of the worst experiences was a trip to the South Dakota State Fair when she had six children in tow.

"They guy at the smoothie stand felt sorry for me and offered to give free smoothies to all of the kids," she said. "And he definitely thought they were all six mine, and I was in high school at the time."

When Kleinsasser arrived to K-State, two of the men she worked with both had children in the first few months of her freshman year, and she began to care for their newborns.

Now in veterinary school, Kleinsasser said working in child care is a good way to sustain a cash flow with her busy schedule.

"It's been a nice break from school," she said, "and I can't have a job because I'm in vet school so this is my only form of income."

The best part of baby-sitting, Kleinsasser said, is meeting and fitting into a new family unit.

"They become my family here since I'm so far away from mine," she said. "The best part is feeling like a part of a family here. That's what I miss about home."

She said the biggest lesson she has learned is patience.

"There's a lot of skills you learn," Kleinsasser said. "Mostly how to serve people when you don't feel like it."

n NOT AN OFFICE JOB

Lisa Davis, sophomore in elementary education, grew up in a small Kansas community and said baby-sitting was the way she made money. When she came to Manhattan, Davis said she found an advertisement in the newspaper for a family who needed a sitter.

Davis takes care of a 2-year-old girl a few times each week.

"It's just a lot of fun," she said. "I like spending time with her. I'm going into elementary education so it's good to work with kids - it's nice to be working with kids."

Davis said child care is an easy way to make money and is "not an office job where I'm just sitting."

After years of caring for children, she said she knows she would like to have children some day - but not yet.

"I definitely do," she said. "It made me realize I do want kids. I just don't want them right now."