So there we were, wife and I, struggling to find a baby sitter. It was going to be a late night for the coffee bar where we were booked to sing was a good hour and a half away and we probably wouldn't get left much before midnight, by the time all gear had been packed in to the trailer and all the pleasantries were exchanged. SO it was certainly not the sort of evening to be asking parents to come and look after their grandchildren and our other usual baby minders were unavailable. It was then I remembered two individuals whom I had taught a couple of years earlier and were now found in each other's company more than when they were at high school. And of course they were delighted when I rang and readily agreed to take on the task of looking after our two tearaways, not that you can do much damage when you're still a year or so short of primary school and your brother is crawling about after you. Anyway, the big night arrived, as did Brian and Alex. (Incidentally, I have changed their names to protect their identity and replaced them with names that are spelt and sound the same!!). There didn't seem to be any major problems. After all, they had babysat for other couples before so we left,fairly confident that things would be OK and they felt fairly confident that after a short period of playing the two boys would quite happily trundle off to bed, leaving the lovebirds to a cosy night of television and cuddles. This may have been their first mistake. Those who have reared toddlers and barely toddlers will know that bedtime is a flexible arrangement when guests come to visit and normal behaviour is probably not the norm. Still, at such times it is probably good to be oblivious to what is happening and so we were until we arrived home, sometime after midnight.
I guess we knew that all had not gone according to plan when Alex met us at the door, sporting one of wife's jumpers. In the minutes that followed, our friends quickly outlined the evening's events which amounted to nothing more than two excited kids having fun with their babysitters and then one of them being physically sick across the jumper of the female who was acting 'in loco parentis' and the surrounding furniture. Now, that I can handle but it was more about the method of coping with the mess that took a little more understanding. Suffice to say they chose to use the vacuum to clean up the remains of a toddler's past few meals. Maybe it was good thing that the hour was late and we were tired but I think it was some time the next morning when it began to dawn on us exactly what was lying in the bowels of our vacuum cleaner and then how we might go about removing it. Anyway, they were young and I suppose they did their best and wife was probably more concerned that someone had been rifling through her clothes to find something to wear. And she had to pick one of her best jumpers! They never came back to babysit.
I guess children aren't that easy to raise and I suppose there is no such thing as the perfect way to do it as everyone of them has a different little personality. But I read something the other day that I thought was more than a little profound and I'll share it with you.
'If you are a parent, don't prepare the path for your child….Prepare your child for the path.' It reminds me of that great verse in Proverbs ch 22 which says, 'Train a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not turn from it.'
That young lad who used to crawl after his toddler brother leaves shortly for the other side of the world on mission for a year. I hope we as parents have prepared him adequately for the path ahead but I know his heavenly father has taken a very active interest in making him ready for what lies ahead and do you know, I think He has prepared the path as well. To all who strive to walk that road, God only lets you begin your journey when He knows you are ready and when He has prepared you well. As for the path. Didn't he walk it himself?
