Last week I was a parent. I found myself responsible for three youngsters between the ages of nine and fifteen. It was three days of waking up at 5:30 a.m., cooking breakfast, dropping kiddies off at school in the morning, picking up kiddies in the afternoon when school let out, cooking dinner for three and making sure everyone got in bed in a timely fashion. While 5:30 a.m. wasn't especially pleasant, I feel pretty good that the three days went well.
I got the call to "babysit" because my cousin and her husband were going out of town to Las Vegas for a work-related conference. I was up to the challenge because her kids are old enough to more or less get up and get dressed on their own. I was needed more as a cook, chauffeur and alarm clock. It reminded me of when I was their age and my father would wake me and my sister up and then cook us breakfast. I couldn't help be be excited at the prospect of doing the same thing for them.
I won't bore you with the details of the three days, suffice to say that I got the job done and was a little impressed with myself for being able to get up and get them up and out of the house so that they were never late to school. I think a more interesting thing is that my cousin trusted me to take care of her kids. She obviously thinks I 'm responsible enough to take care of children. I'm not entirely sure why that is. I've told her on several occasions that I'm barely able to take care of myself.
Yet, her level of trust in me is something I can't ignore. Just like I can't ignore the fact that I more than rose to the challenge of taking care of her kids in her absence. I wouldn't go as far to say that this means I'm ready to be a father or anything like that. I'm fully aware that the financial commitment of raising a child is well beyond my current means. However, I like the fact that she thinks I'm ready for that amount of responsibility. It's good to know that there are others who think I'm prepared.
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