Thursday, February 6, 2014

The Babysitter Paradox

My husband and I have waited for the day that we could go out and would not have to find a babysitter. I knew that my patience would pay off and eventually my children would be old enough to take care of themselves. The only thing I did not consider is that when Sophia was old enough to watch her siblings, she would also be in demand from our friends.
When we had Sophia and Zachary and lived in Davenport, we would take turns with other couples; watching their children so we could all got out once in a while without having the expense of a date anda babysitter. But when we moved to Greeley we knew no one, so we no longer had that luxury. We spent so much money during the week on childcare that the last thing I wanted to do was pay a sitter on the weekend. I reminded myself that one day soon Sophia would be old enough to watch the kids so we could go out.
Sophia received her babysitting certification a couple of years ago. She has even watched the kids during the day while we were at work but we have never had her watch the kids so we could go out for dinner or a movie.
Well, we have had a gift card for the Bonefish Grill for a year-and-a-half, plus movie vouchers given to us by friends so we really did not have a good excuse for not going out. Except that I wasn’t sure if Sophia could handle the kids in the evening.
This week, I finally decided that Erik and I should go out for dinner so I was going to let Sophia take care of her siblings. On Saturday morning, I received a text from a friend asking if Sophia was available to watch her son that evening. Sophia has been anxious to get the chance to watch somebody else’s child and not her siblings. Besides, everybody pays better than her Mom. I told my friend Sophia could watch her son and Erik and I postponed our dinner plans. Again.
I have now realized that I have probably missed my chance to use Sophia as a babysitter for her siblings. I am just going to have to wait patiently for Zach to turn 13 or until Emma is old enough to be in charge. (That is at least 3 more years, but she may be a little safer option than Zach.)
Luckily, I prefer the movies from Redbox and would rather be wearing my pajamas eating dinner than having to get dressed up and fix my hair.

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