Abby Connolly
If you’re an older sibling, did you hate it when you had to babysit your younger siblings instead of going out with friends?
One single mother is distraught after she asked her teenager to watch her little sister during an emergency, and she ended up leaving her with strangers so she could see her friends.
She is a single mother with three children. A 16-year-old daughter named Polly, a 12-year-old son named Trevor, and an 8-year-old daughter named Cassie.
She has little to no help raising her kids. Their dad isn’t around, her mom lives two hours away, and she has 2 babysitters that help whenever they’re available.
She explained that she wants to keep Polly’s teenage years as normal as possible and always makes an effort to hire a babysitter before asking her to watch her siblings. And when Polly does have to babysit, she gets paid $15 an hour.
Recently, Trevor had been quite sick over the course of a few days before waking up with a high fever. She needed to take him to the ER.
It was a Saturday afternoon, and Polly was due to hang out with some friends, but none of the babysitters were responding, so she would have to watch her little sister at home while Trevor went to the hospital.
“I apologized that she’d have to miss out on time with friends but said I’d pay her, and she could even have her friends over at our place,” she explained. “Polly pitched a fit and asked why I couldn’t send Cassie to the neighbors.”
The neighbors Polly was referring to had just moved in a month ago, and she didn’t know them. There was no prior relationship with these neighbors other than the occasional wave from their mailboxes. To try and sweeten the deal for Polly, she said she would pay her $18 an hour before leaving with Trevor.
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