Getting Brave

We're getting brave. We've hired our first paid babysitter ever. I feel so grown up!

After having a third child, I feel more and more guilty dumping off three precious little ones on our gracious friends and neighbors. In the past, I've preferred to have friends and close neighbors watch the kids, because they too have children and it works out well. Now I realize that would frequently make for someone watching somewhere around five kids (once you include theirs into the mix). To not pay someone for that favor is getting harder and harder. Consequently, Mike and I never get out because we never feel like burdening someone.

We still have some gluttons for punishment though (**cough, cough** you know who you are). But even they weren't available for a short notice wedding coming up this weekend.

So...we went in a new direction. We've hired a teenage sitter. Macey is her name, and she goes to our church. She's awesome with kids (and no...she's not the one who tried to kill Natalie a few weeks back). She watches our kids at small group while we adults meet. Frankly, she'll be doing the same job for us this Saturday, for the same length of time. The only difference is that we won't be on site.

And really, that's not a problem for us.

We are happy to pay someone if it affords us the luxury of seeing some friends get married, and for a few kid-free hours together. And considering that the date is free...we can afford the sitter. In the future, we'll be looking for cheap or free dates while we pay the sitter, but hey. At least I don't have a guilty complex anymore.