Kid-sitting for sis could be win-win prospect

DEAR MISS LONELYHEARTS: I’m a relatively young middle-aged guy in my 30s from a big business family, and I’m feeling more than ready to find a wife and start a family.

I have a lot of money saved, and I own my own house, but I have no love partner this year as I was closing some deals with my dad. I often worked 18-hour days and was out of town for months on end.

That’s completed now and it was very successful, so now it’s back to normal in Winnipeg.

However, I can now afford to take regular time off and get back to eight-hour days and pretty much set my own hours.

Then my sister — an executive secretary — got pregnant unintentionally earlier this year. She plans to have the child on her own and I’m jealous.

She knows my situation and has offered to hire me for morning infant care so she can work part-time.

I’m used to being home in the mornings and working one to nine p.m., so she thinks it could work. Or, would it just rub it in for me that the child isn’t mine and I’m just the uncle? I did a lot of babysitting as a teenager and was really good at it. I need your advice.

— Longing For Kids and Family, Winnipeg

Dear Longing: Trying out the babysitting deal with your sister’s kid would be a serious experiment that might help you come to more reality-based conclusions about what you really want and need in the long-term, such as combining work and raising children.

This experience will also be intriguing to the type of family-oriented woman you might like to date. You might be very popular with the other women pushing their little ones around in the park, and they might have some interesting single friends.

It sounds like a worthwhile experience and a great way to bond with your future niece or nephew, so why not try it?

Dear Miss Lonelyhearts: I’m dating a woman who personifies bodily perfection. My dad met her recently and is not impressed. He says it looks like she’s trying to get her hooks into me by “parading her fit body and fake tan.”

He says it doesn’t sound like a deep and lasting love prospect to him.

He knows I want to get hitched, and he’s a lucky guy who has been married forever to a great woman — my mom.

Is he right, or just a jealous old codger who’s trying to spoil my fun?

— Tired of Being Lonely, River Heights

Dear Lonely Guy: Dad knows his son well and may be sensing some warning signs. This woman trying to win you with her body perfection is not impressing him.

Why are you panicking, anyway? Rushing things can get you into a very quick and unhappy relationship, making you feel worse than lonely.

So slow down and see how things actually progress in your relationship. Don’t totally discount your father’s concerns and don’t be too starry-eyed and hasty either.

Please send your questions and comments to lovecoach@hotmail.com or Miss Lonelyhearts c/o the Winnipeg Free Press, 1355 Mountain Ave., Winnipeg, MB, R2X 3B6.

Maureen Scurfield
Advice columnist

Maureen Scurfield writes the Miss Lonelyhearts advice column.

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