This past week I’ve been at cottages with family and friends. I’ve been offline most of the time, thus the scarcity of posts and lack of activity on Facebook and Twitter. It’s been nice to be offline. We’ve been doing fun summer stuff like swimming, canoeing, boating, playing games, etc.
Now, I’m in the Peterborough area with my good friend Diana and her family. Diana has lived abroad since she left Toronto in the 1980s. They truly live the expatriate life. We have one of those friendships where it doesn’t matter that we haven’t seen each other in two years, everything is easy. We fall back into our relationship where we left off. But that’s not what this post is about, it’s about her teen children interacting with my four year olds.
Diana’s teens all love little children and are very good with them. They are Hanna, 17, Saunder, 15 & Benjam, 14. My girls quickly bonded with Hanna and were very snuggly. Saunder was watching and commented that he wished they would snuggle with him. Guess who’s babysitting now while I write this at the Public Library? It’s Saunder & Benjam. They love the little girls. Their cousins, who are 9 & 14 year old boys, are also really good with the girls.
I find this fascinating and heart warming. I haven’t seen many teens behave this way before. Of course, I haven’t been around that many teens either and my girls haven’t had teenaged babysitters (other than their older sisters who are great with them). So I’m wondering if this is a personality thing, parenting, exposure?
What are your experiences with teens and younger children?
Photo to follow.
I have had many teenagers babysit and the majority of them are awesome! I think babysitting younger ones allows them to really be who they are – there are no peers there checking them out and there is no need to “fit in”.