The Ultimate Gift

What people say can make such a difference ...

One of the first children in my care when I started up my daycare was a little girl just a few months younger than my own son. I started taking care of her when she was about 6 months old and our children grew up together and have become the best of friends.

I have needed to have a place for my own son to be, on various occasions this past little while and I approached this mom about an exchange of 'babysitting services'. She was in full agreement with the idea and we discussed that it would be a trade off - I had no desire for this to work only one way. The mom was fully agreeable on the idea and I have utilized this situation a lot more than I am comfortable with lately.

I have to work this upcoming Saturday and then have plans for an overnight stay in Regina with friends. So I needed a place for my son to stay for 2 days. I gingerly approached her about this and asked her to think long and hard about it before she agreed (but if she had plans or reservations, an immediate "no" would be okay).

Anyway, she called me this morning to tell me that it would work out just fine for him to stay with them next weekend. I tried to put a dollar value on what I would owe her for this, because to me it is priceless. I couldn't begin to put a number on what it was worth to me ... but I kind of tossed out a number so we had a starting point.

And her reply to me is the gift I am talking about ....

She said that I took care of her daughter since she was a baby and that I was part of the reason that she has become as good a kid as she is today, so she really had no need for financial compensation.

This is a mom that I've had some 'hard conversations' with. We got through some tough times. And this is my reward.

I feel fully appreciated and valued. For her to tell me this was a gift to me. I still plan on trading off services in lieu of her keeping my son this weekend, but the words she spoke were the best gift a caregiver could ever receive.