Fact:  We do things for our children that we would never do for anyone else.

We drive places for them, sometimes in the middle of the night, we do without things we want or need so that they may have that special something, and we agree to sit through really bad music at their thirteenth birthday parties. 

We take care of them when they’re sick, we listen to the wailing of piano or saxophone practice, and we go to dance recitals that seem to go on for hours and hours.  Oh wait, they really do go on for hours and hours.

But I’ve just done something for my daughter that tops all those. 

I would never have agreed to do it for anyone else.  It took time away from my family.  I had to double up on hours I spent at my own job.  But for my baby, I’d do anything, right?

My daughter, Christi, is working as a nanny this summer for a family in Houston.  I use the term “nanny” loosely because, although she was hired to take care of the children, the children are not always there.  In those instances, the mother leaves Christi a list of errands to run, groceries to buy, or things she would like Christi to do around the house.

Christi had an obligation that was going to put her out of town for five days, and couldn’t find any of her friends that were able to fill in for her while she was gone.  Being a mom, and not wanting her to lose her job, I offered to watch her charges if it was going to put the family in a bind.

So she approached her employer and told her, “My mom said she could come help if you need her to while I’m gone” to which her boss answered, “Yes, I really need her … that would be great.”

My daughter and I both assumed that the children would be there.  Otherwise, she would have surely been able to make it through five days without help.

Never assume anything.

The first day, Christi met me at the house to show me where everything was.  We were surprised to find the lady of the house home.  I imagined it was to meet me, which I could understand, because I wouldn’t want to leave my children with someone I had never met.

But, no.  She had taken off work for the whole day and left with the children shortly after I arrived.  Christi and I found the list she had left behind, and it was all household chores.

I wasn’t going to be babysitting at all.  I was going to be cleaning her house.  Now keep in mind that with my hectic work schedule, I am barely able to keep up with my own housework and I hire a cleaning service to help out.

But what could I do?  Christi and I both shrugged our shoulders, I hugged her goodbye, rolled up my sleeves, and got to work.  In the next five days, I scrubbed down the shower stall, vacuumed her house, did all their laundry, went to the grocery store, dusted the furniture, cleaned toilets, and changed the sheets on the beds.  All the while, I had to laugh at the fact that here I was, a “professional” with a Master’s degree under my belt, scrubbing somebody else’s house.  It was a humbling experience.  But, boy, that house sparkled by the time I was through with it.

But I was also really tired.  And nanny?  I actually babysat for a total of two hours during those days.

Like I said, I wouldn’t have done it for anyone else.  I was really glad when my sentence, I mean obligation, was up.

As for Christi … well, she was appreciative, to say the least.  But she owes me.  Big time.