SEATTLE—Taking comfort in the fact that she had a fallback plan, area woman Gwen Ponte reminded herself Monday that if her job search failed, she could always find work as the sole protector of someone else’s children. “I’d love to find an office job, but if I can’t land anything, at least I can always scrape by as the lone arbiter of whether another person’s child lives or dies,” said the 33-year-old, reassuring herself that even if full-time employment didn’t pan out, she could still get a temporary gig holding the very existence of a vulnerable toddler or kindergartner in her hands. “A lot of these listings are asking for people with more of a resume than me, which sucks, but I understand these companies don’t trust someone who only has enough experience to be the only thing standing between a four-year-old ingesting poison or getting run over by car. But it’s nice knowing I can lean on something simple like that until I get my foot in the door at a real job.” At press time, Ponte had opted not to apply for a branch supervisor position since it sounded like way too much responsibility.