Babysitting As Practice for Potential Parents

One way to decide if you and your husband or wife are ready to try to have a baby is to babysit for other people's children. My husband and I come from big Italian families. We are blessed with three nieces, a nephew, and lots of little cousins, who range in age from 1 to 18. We spend much of our time with them and have a good idea of what parenthood will be like from birth to the teenage years.

Whenever I get the chance to babysit or weigh in on issues affecting one of the teens in our life, I consider it an opportunity to flex my parenting muscles. It gives me a glimpse at what life might be like for me if and when my husband and I become parents. Granted, the real thing will be very different. When you're babysitting, you can send little Johnny home when he starts crying, vomiting, or acting up. You can't do that when little Johnny is your kid.

Still, I recommend babysitting and seeing what it's like to be responsible for a child and rear him or her, even if for just an hour or two. You might get pushed to your limit. You might fall in love. You might decide to try to have a baby.