Adventures in Babysitting

When I was a teenager, I was one of the only girls in my subdivision that babysat.  My neighborhood was filled with a lot of young families, so I was kept fairly busy taking care of kids. At $2 an hour (don't laugh--it was a decent wage back then), I should have had a sizable savings built up with all of the babysitting jobs I had back then.  I've thought back on this through the years and I can not for the life of me figure out where that money went, other than when I bought my hamster and all of her hamster accoutrements.

Today, while browsing the web, I had a light bulb moment.  A small, possibly-toxic, overpriced plastic, choking hazard of a light bulb moment, undoubtedly purchased at a store like Claire's.  I saw the picture below and I was immediately transported to the days when some friends and I would be dropped off at the mall by our parents, long before any of us had drivers' licenses, let alone our own cars.  The mall had untold fortunes of nonsense that, had we actually allowed ourselves to be seen with our parents in these stores, we would have been talked out of buying.  It's crap like this (and cedar chips for Ginger) that I spent my money on.   

Whoever owned this necklace obviously didn't have a hamster to support.