Our friends from Arizona came to visit this weekend. Since they moved to Arizona, over seven years ago, they have only been able to come back a handful of times. So we decided to go out and have a few beers with them on Saturday night [and I mean beer in the figurative sense because I don't drink beer and Lee doesn't drink at all].

Since we were planning on going out we needed to get a babysitter. We have a girl that sometimes babysits for us sometimes, but she was dating one of Lee’s friends…and now they aren’t. She called us and told us she’d still babysit for us though. And, honestly, when you have five kids, it’s hard to find a good babysitter. So I told Lee to call her.

But then we got to thinking…Justis is 14. He really is responsible enough to babysit. And Keaton is 12. He’s not really old enough to babysit on his own, but he could be a good helper to Justis.

So I called the boys in for a family meeting. I said, “Do you guys want to babysit or would you rather we get a sitter?” I barely got the question out before they were both nodding their head vigorously and saying, “Yes, how much do we get paid?”

And the decision was made. They would babysit for us. We wouldn’t be out any later than midnight [if that late] and they weren’t allowed on the computer while they were babysitting. [When they are on the computer they are like zombies. The house could burn down around them and they would barely notice.]

After making sure both boys were off the computer and in the living room with their siblings, plus checking to make sur all emergency numbers were secured to the fridge, Lee and I left around 7:30pm

It was kind of a strange feeling the kids home alone for the first time. On one hand I knew they could handle it and they would take this responsibility very serious. But on the other hand I felt like I was leaving our kids home alone [which we were, but you know what I mean.]

As we pulled away from the house I had thoughts that maybe we should just stay home. Or maybe Lee should go without me. But I shook them off. I had to trust the boys. I had to let them know I trusted them. It’s important to them.

We headed up to a bar that is only a few blocks from our house. We could have run home if we wanted to [but who wants to?!?]. So we weren’t even that far away. And both Lee and I carried our cell phones in our pocket so we could answer it the second it started to vibrate. But we never got a call from the boys.

When we pulled up to the house at ten to midnight, the house was dark. As we were walking up to the front door, Lee said, “Do you think they are in bed?” I said, “The little kids? Or all of the kids?”

Then we entered the house. All five kids were laying on blankets in the living room. They had watched a movie and fallen asleep together. It was so sweet.

So all went well. I worried for nothing. They did a fantastic job. I never doubted them for a second.

Plus if we hadn’t gone out we would have totally missed our friends, Dave and Scott, singing a karaoke love song together. Now that was priceless.

This entry was posted on Monday, August 28th, 2006 at 4:30 pm and is filed under A day in our life. Comments are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.