Rent-a-Drew

Yesterday, Drew had yet another birthday party to attend (3rd one in the last 3 weekends), and he got to run around with his little buddies, including his friend Van. On our way home from the party, Van's parents called us to ask if Drew would like to come over for a play-date that afternoon / evening. He'd just seen Van, but hey, we knew he'd have a good time.

Amy was experimenting with making chicken pot pie last evening, and Drew isn't usually one to be voluntarily adventurous with his meals, so he opted to go have dinner with Van. We drove him over a little before 5, and Van's grandparents were at the house, but they said that several other people were also coming over for dinner that evening. Drew was going to be a childhood babysitter.

We left him there until a little after 8, when we picked him up. They had 2 other couples over and were all talking and enjoying some drinks, while Drew and Van happily busied themselves with a Thomas the Train set, walking around the table, driving the trains in circles. They seem to have kept each other occupied the entire time. We told Drew that it was time to go home, and he made the rounds, hugging each person in the room, whether he knew them or not, and when he hugged Van, it turned into a cute little wrestling match, where they fell onto the couch in a friendly embrace.

We deduced that Drew was definitely a babysitter for them for the evening, which was fine with us. We got to thinking about his value in this matter. When you want to have friends over, you don't want to have to constantly watch the kid, but you don't want to get rid of him, either. It worked well for everyone. But now, we're wondering - what is this service worth?