Generation NeXt Parenting

Changing of the Guard

Guest Blogger Hope-Giver

Tonight, My beloved and I had a splendid night out with our friends. It was a simple night, but glorious. We ate delicious potluck dinner (roast pork loin, herbroasted new potatoes, caesar salad and herbed beer bread).

One of our friends hosted so we got to get out of our own house strewn with laundry and visit their sparkling clean house. It's only fair. We take turns hosting. As hosts, it was their turn to tidy up and our turn to enjoy it. We talked about this and that, passed around the newborns, spent a few minutes praying for each other, and drove home. Holding hands and listening to the radio. Ooh!

Before we left, I'd dropped our son off at our neighborhood babysitter. We were lucky to get her on such short notice, as our babysitter has grown up and become a social butterfly highschooler. Her dance card is nearly full. But tonight she was available. The plan was for us to drop our son off at her house and later our son and the sitter would migrate over to our house after dinner to take advantage of the celebrated new gamecube game.

When I dropped our son off at the sitter, I had been awash in memories. She's been his babysitter since he was eighteen months old. Tonight, they stood back to back and the top of his head grazed her ear. "Our baby is growing up!" she said. Imagine my surprise when we got home from the party to find the babysitters's little brother answering the door.

My first thought was, "how nice, the little brother came over to play gamecube while his sister babysat our son." I asked where she was. "She's next door. She had something she had to do at home and she told me to call if I needed her." A little skeptical wrinkle appeared between my eyebrows. "How old are you?" I asked him. "Eleven." My frown dissolved into a smile. My goodness how time flies. "That 's how old your sister was when she first started babysitting for us." "I'm only eleven", she had told me, "but my mom is right next door if I need anything." I remembered her hopeful words and how I'd entrusted my tiny toddler to her back then. Surely this boy had kept my gangly seven year old out of danger for a few hours. How time flies!

So I hugged him and bragged on him for how grown up he is now. And I gave him the twenty dollar bill I'd intended to give his sister. It was the changing of the guard.

Hope-Giver Robin
Jai Bonne Esperance - I Have Good Hope

posted by Tricia Goyer @ 8:46 AM