Page 74 of The Single Dad's Guide to Recreation

“Well, yeah, duh. Who wouldn’t?”

“She likes bossing people around,” he adds.

She huffs. “Also, so I can choose who I sit for, dummy.”

“The people with the best snacks?” he asks.

“The people with the best rules. Whose kids have, like, bedtimes.” She shrugs. “And snacks.”

I sit back in my chair, mind reeling for a moment before circling back to my own problem. I’ve been hoping we could use teenagers to do the bulk of the work. It would give them something meaningful to do after school, and we’d only have to pay real salaries to a couple extra staff members to act as supervisors. “So… do you guys, like, have teen jobs covered already?”

Riley tips her head to the side, nodding slowly. “I think there’s a market share for this. Especially on the parent side of things. Our prices are too high for a lot of families. Plus, it’s harder for kids without cars. As it is, we have to match kids our age with families they can bike to.”

“Or if it’s the weekend, the parents drive,” Owen adds.

“That’s the other issue,” I say. “I’m not sure what to do about transportation.”

“What about school buses?” Owen asks.

“What about them?”

“A couple of the bus routes go right by CPR.”

“They do?”

“How do you think we get here?” Riley asks.

I’d never thought about that. “So, both the students attending aftercare and the students working for us would just ride the bus?”

“I mean, you’d have to talk to whoever makes up the schedules and routes, but yeah,” Riley says.

“Then they can all get picked up by their parents at dinnertime,” Owen says.

I’m jotting down notes as fast as I can, getting really excited about this. Parents might want to take a fitness or art class at the end of the workday before picking up their kids. Or they could just chat outside, meeting their neighbors. CPR aftercare could be the kind of community builder Playgroup used to be.

“But do you think enough teens would be interested?” I ask, dreading their answer.

“Like we said, it’s complicated,” Riley says. “You’d have to work around sports practices.”

“And other school activities.”

“But those are all during school now.”

“Not 4-H.”

“True.”

“But if it could be a thing to put on your, like, college resume?—”

“People would totally be into that.”

“Because except for farm harvests?—”

“Or babysitting.”

“There’s, like, nowhere for kids our age to work.”

“Only if their family has a business?—”

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