Parenting by Existence

My daughter was asked to babysit for the first time in her life.  She is thirteen and impressed me with the ability to create trust in other adults  to take care of their daughter. 
They are friends on mine and they do know Alice of course but still.
She planned the whole day, 5 hours to be exact.  She negotiated her pay and was making sure that under no circumstances I would be supervising.  She is a big person now, she can handle a job.  I was so happy for her.  She packed and asked me one more time not to get involved.  
I  did not.  The only thing I did was not to give her a swim suit right away, I told her that I would drop it off later when they are ready for the  beach.  I wanted to take a peak..
It was an amazing day.
They spent some time on a trampoline, played with Barbie dolls and then went to the beach.  This family lives close to a beautiful beach on top of the mountain with a waterfall.  She swam with her little friend  to the deck in the middle of a lake, read a book, ordered food for them and negotiated free drinks.  She figured out coupons! 
That was the best part:  Girl's father left her $20 to order food.  They ordered and the  total came to $24 so she called me asking to come and bring her $4 extra dollars.  I said that I am not sure it was the way to go.  So she said: 'Oh, wait, we ordered drinks and maybe  that what took us over the limit.  She called back the food place and said " I am a babysitter and only have $20 so what should I take off the bill to fit the budget.  Food place guided her to the site where she found coupons, and ....they got all what they ordered for $17 so she had money for the tip
She.cleaned the kitchen after they ate, locked the house, checked the lights, etc.  She was so proud
She also spoke to lifeguards on the beach and the girl explained to her how to become one and Alice said that she would be a lifeguard as her summer job in High school.

I felt I should have paid for all that actually....

Comments

  1. Ah yes..that is a beautiful tale and I only wish that I could have been there as well, but I was the parent in question!! First of all, I owe you twenty dollars and second of all I cannot imagine a more wonderful baby sitting adventure for my daughter. The only direction I gave Alice was..." hey your only taking care of another life...no pressure..." She did wonderfully!!...and I knew she would...

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

My Guru and the Scandal

A “show” story

Amma's Darshan