High listeners, this is Ashley Flowers, and I want to tell you a story about why I stopped babysitting.

So gather around and listen close.

This is a story from my babysitting days around five years ago or so when I was 15 and desperate to save up for a car despite the fact that I didn't even have my learners permit.

I would babysit for family and then family friends, and pretty soon word of mouth was getting me calls from people I'd never get met before.

People wanted to hire babysitter that they knew wouldn't just sit from the liquor bottles in the cupboard or invite their boyfriend and girlfriend over.

I was very patient as a teenager so good with kids and far too chicken to ever properly snoop around people's houses or like

rifle through their cupboards or bedside drawers. And I'd only ever been drunk once before and I hated it so much that it put me off alcohol for a good long while.

So I was the ideal babysitter.

So anyways one Friday I get this call from a couple who would heard about me from somebody they met someplace.

I don't know. And they asked me if I was available for Sunday night. Now this is summer break so I was available pretty much every night of the week.

My most popular nights were usually Fridays and Saturdays and even though I was planning a sleepover with my friend Sunday, I cancelled in order to sit for this couple.

My rate was $50 a night but parents were usually a bit drunk and very grateful when they got home from a night out so they would press extra tens and 20s into my hands insistently as I left.

And mostly they would drive me home but sometimes my mom or dad had to pick me up if the parents were drunk or the house was really far away from mine.

Now this couple that were asking about Sunday they said they would be out until very late and would pay me upwards of $100 for me to sit for them.

They also offered to pick me up for my house to get to their place which was about a good 40 minutes away and then they said they would drive me back afterwards.

Now this was thoughtful but my dad always insisted he drive me to the house that I was sitting at to make sure that he knew where I was going to be and he even tried and meet the couple if he was able to.

So Sunday was no different and so after telling the couple I would be dropped by their place by 6 I got set for the night.

I never brought homework or anything with me because back then I was a good little nerd and I always did my homework as soon as I got it.

What I did bring was my book The Secret History which is by the way a great read but slightly creepy and a bag of chips just in case there wasn't any nice food or they didn't say like eat whatever you want.

So we leave and my dad drops me off the house, waits for me to knock on the door of this cute little house with a nice roses in the front,

little garden and once he sees the door open and me about to go in he drives off.

But the door opens and it's this old lady standing there and she goes can I help you?

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