The $55 Was Never for Babysitting—Mom Was Saving Every Dollar for Theo

Three months earlier, Theo had asked her what would happen when she became “too old” to watch him. The question apparently stayed with her. Mom realized she had very little extra money to leave him someday, so she started putting every babysitting payment aside—and matching it with $55 of her own whenever she could. She had already opened a separate savings account intended for Theo’s future education, first car, or whatever important beginning he might need when he was older.

“Why didn’t you just tell me?” I asked.

“Because you would’ve refused to give me the money,” she said. She was right.

I felt ridiculous remembering how angry I had been.

We changed the arrangement afterward. Mom stopped demanding payment, but my husband and I began putting that same $55 into Theo’s savings whenever she helped us, and Mom continued adding what she could.

I had thought my mother had suddenly put a price on time with her grandson.

She had actually been trying to give that time a future.