Rob Sowell, 17, has always loved children. Even when he was in elementary school, he gave up recesses to watch the smaller kids while their teachers stepped out. But he feels as a teenager that society unfairly views with disfavor the expressing of his love…Rob set out to change things.

When he tried to become a babysitter parents resisted hiring him. One mom confessed to Rob that she didn’t like hiring male-sitters. But he was her last resource.

That night while getting Kris, 7, ready for bed he realized that Andrew, 5, was missing. Rob tells it like this: “We couldn’t find him so I put a jacket on Kris and brought him outside with me. With a flashlight in one hand and Kris in the other, I looked in every backyard and bush. I went to Andrew’s school directly behind the house. I saw him walking towards me and I started shouting, ANDREW…but he wouldn’t answer. When he got about 5 feet in front of me and I was ready to carry him home, I noticed his eyes were shut.”

He recalled his sociology class project about sleep disorders. It cautioned, “Never touch or disrupt a person that is sleep-walking as it may cause harm. Direct the person home, not physically but verbally.”

“So I did,” exclaimed Rob, “And we were Home Sweet Home again in no time. Later Kris told his parents how his “favorite babysitter,” as he calls me, was able to handle the situation. A newspaper article appeared in the Niagara Falls Review interviewing him about the incident. Rob reports, “Ever since then, parents in my city trust male-sitters to babysit and I proved the fact that guys could be as responsible with children as girls are.”

(Submitted by Rob Sowell, Niagara Falls, ONT, Canada)

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