Reflections on My Grandmother at 13

Yesterday my 13 year old went to a friend's house to help her catch up on her cleaning as she has 3 kids under 4 and was feeling a little overwhelmed.  My daughter thought this was an ok idea as she was going to get paid for it and loves the extra income as she is now enjoying doing her own shopping.  I also enjoy it as I no longer have to pay for all the things she wants!  This is her third job in her life.  Her first one was being a mother's helper for another young family, such a great experience all summer.  She also started babysitting and loved that, too.  I'm so grateful for the jobs a young girl can do that are safe and teach them so much.

What she didn't expect, however, yesterday, was how hard it was going to be!  She was washing and cleaning 3 bathrooms and mopping floors in the house for several hours.  She came home tired and sore.  My first thoughts were pity, I have to admit.  I felt sorry for her.  I make her clean here, too, but hours at a time?  No.  But then, I thought, wow, this is exactly what I wanted, isn't it?  We say that we have arrows in our quiver, but do we ever send them out to help others? Then I thought about the character she was learning.  You can only learn character by doing hard things and here she was doing very hard work.  Some good has to come out of that!  

Then, I thought about my grandmother.  She came over from Germany to Canada at 13 years old (I think I have that age right).  She came as an orphan and was immediately put to work as a housekeeper in someone's house at a very young age.  She wasn't treated nicely from what I was told.  Yet, here was my daughter, in a house of a friend who kept checking on her to see if she was ok, offering her food, telling her to not push herself too much, and then coming home to a family where she is loved and encouraged.  My daughter was working hard, yes, but she has it waaaaay better than my grandmother ever did.  At the same time, it made me appreciate my grandmother so much more to think about what she would have been like, what she would have been doing at that young age, all alone.  I ached for her wishing I could have talked to her last night and thanked her for all she did as a young girl, knowing she probably never had any appreciation.

That's all I have time for now....I'm now going to attempt to wake up the slumberers who are against waking up....