It isn't easy out here for single parents. I mean, with all the work they have to do, from taking care of their kids to handling their personal life — all these without the help of a partner. That can't be easy. Plus having three kids, including a teenager, an almost teenager, and an 8-year-old in the mix — exhausting!
This story is about a single mum with a 16-year-old daughter, Polly, a 12-year-old son, Trevor, and an eight-year-old daughter, Cassie. OP does all she can for them, even with an absent father and distant family.
The Babysitters
One can say babysitters are blessings from above to parents. They can go about their day without worry, knowing that their kids are in capable hands.
u/dratonallthings has two of these blessings. They come around whenever she needs them to. But she resorts to asking her oldest daughter, Polly, on the days they can't.
She tries not to let this happen often and hates when she has to ask. She doesn't want Polly to miss out on time with her friends just to play second mom to her siblings. It's why she pays her daughter $15 an hour when she does ask her to babysit.
Talk about a side hustle.
Outing Canceled
The thing about emergencies is that they're always unplanned. For OP, an emergency came up with on a Saturday when her go-to babysitters were already busy. Polly, too, already had plans to hang out with some of her friends. But when OP's middle child, Trevor, got so sick she needed to take him to the emergency room, she had to ask Polly to stay home with her youngest.
OP wasn't surprised when Polly got upset about being asked to cancel her friends. But, she was surprised that Polly suggested she leave Cassie with their new neighbors: people who had just moved in, who they barely knew. Instead, she told Polly she would pay her $18 an hour and took Trevor to the hospital.
Stranger Danger
When OP left to take her sick child to the emergency room, she trusted her youngest was safest with her oldest. She wasn't expecting to find out that not only did Polly still go out with her friends, but she dropped Cassie off at the neighbor's house OP told her she didn't want to leave Cassie.
So when OP finally got home from taking care of her sick son, she grounded her oldest daughter for two weeks. But now that the dust is settling, she's feeling bad for grounding Polly. Did she overreact by grounding Polly?
No, She Needs To Keep Her Grounded Longer
Most people believe that OP needs to do more than a two-week ground. Polly intentionally took Cassie to an unknown neighbor's house when her mum told her not to. Why? Because she felt she was entitled to an outing with her friends.
Anything could've gone wrong, but as she said, that wasn't her problem.
Someone had dropped some helpful advice:
“…But part of her punishment should be watching documentaries on the dangers of trusting strangers or people you don't really know with your kids.
Especially ones that center around a teenager who dumped their siblings off on someone like that….”
Most people say that OP isn't wrong and that she should punish Polly for her actions a bit more. I agree with that. If things were to have gone south, an apology from Polly would not have sufficed, and she needs to understand that. What do you say?
This thread inspired this post.
This article is produced and syndicated by Wealth of Geeks.
Boloere Seibidor, fondly called B.S. is a Nigerian-based writer and poet. Her favorite topics to cover include music, especially Hip-Hop, film, lifestyle, and fashion. She's been published by Feral Journal, Fantasy Magazine, The Temz Review, and most notably, Wealth of Geeks. She enjoys romantic dinners, movie nights, and touring new sites. When she's not writing, she's delving back in time to the underground world of Hip-Hop, watching TikTok, or visiting the cinema.