Guide to watching other people's children.

Three under three guide to watching other people’s children....

A few weeks ago himself’s sister asked us would we keep her two children for the weekend as her and her husband had a thing to go to(these lucky feckers and their social lives....) We of course said we’d be delighted to keep them and definitely NOT for the fact that they promised to return the favour...*checks diary for next suitable weekend with one hand while packing a bag with the other*

In all seriousness the girls are 9 and almost 11 and they are no trouble at all. In fact, they are really brilliant with our ones and I knew the big girl especially would be over the moon about them staying.

I had an evening out planned on the Friday, starting with a make up lesson at 6pm(present from wee sis Christmas 2016 that we never used because we intended to make a night of it and there were too many pregnancies!), then dinner and drinks, but himself assured me that he’d be grand with all 5 children...😳😂😂😂

Knowing the girls were coming gave us the boot in the hole we needed to get some sort of flooring sorted for the back bedroom so the weekend before the big sleepover we had the new flooring put down. This of course meant that all the furniture* from the back room had to be moved out temporarily**

*shite

**himself sees a fine line between temporarily and permanently

As well as this new arrangement of furniture that could never in a million years be classified as feng shui, there was a literal mountain of clothes ranging in age from 3months to 4 years in every season thinkable that also needed sorted and put away/donated/thrown out. So huge was this clothes heap I was this close to contacting the national trust to check if they needed to reclassify the highest mountain in Ireland. The prospect of climbing Errigal was more appealing than tackling Mount Pink Explosion.

Also the living room had been rendered unusable since the 6th January as it was housing all the Christmas decorations that still hadn’t found their way back to the attic. Such fun.😬

I wanted all this sorted for the girls coming( I always do my best work when faced with a deadline!) but sure we had all week, so pleeeenty of time!!!!

Haha! Hahahahahaha!!!!

Of course it wasn’t! The fecking bitch Karma came back again because she saw that I was trying to get on top of things she brought the flu with her!!! Me and her are seriously going to fall out! Also in my plans I totally forgot about the fact that we have three live wrecking balls living in the house with us who occasionally want fed/washed/played with! 

But it was grand! Himself could take a half day on the Friday as he didn’t have to be in work until after lunch and between the two of us it would all get done! 

I should add that one of the only things that actually did get done in the week before was that himself decided to break up the old wardrobe from the back room and parts of that were now scattered all around the good guest room......SUCH fun! 😬😬😬😬

So Thursday evening comes and we are full of plans. I’m making lists to kick ass on Friday! Go me!! 

Then I get a message from my previous job(I’m a teacher by qualification whereas my actual job title these days would be more like Chief Skivvy/Dogsbody! I’m so glad I went to university for 4 years and acquired a pile of debt....)They were wondering could I come in on Friday to cover for a day. Now as much as we have to do on Friday it’s very difficult say no to a days work when my maternity ran out in December (really a days pay.....lies, it’s really a day off from the skivvy job!).

Himself is encouraging me to do it but he can only keep the children for part of the day so it requires much logistical planning to arrange babysitters/dropoff/pick up.  Not to mention the fact that we have to let his sister know we can’t have the girls now until about 4pm(by the time I go round half the city!) 

Anyway I get home just after 4 and the girls are there and everything’s grand aside from the fact that it looks like we’ve been robbed since I left this morning! House is ransacked! Downstairs may now be worse than upstairs....🙈 

Everyone gets a snack and all 6 of us go upstairs for me to get ready. 

While upstairs I’m trying to get ready and tidy up a bit. Part of tidying involves removing an actual AXE from the spare room. I’m guessing that was the weapon of choice for wardrobe dismantling aka the manliest of manly tools however leaving it lying in a bedroom may be the stupidest of stupid acts!🙄🙄

I eventually leave the house at approx 6.18pm and we have a really good night. No emergency calls from himself so that’s always a good thing and Saturday morning is my turn for a (vvvv necessary) lie in!   

When I eventually get up I discover that not only did the elder of my nieces dress the wee girl this morning she also went into her in the middle of the night when she woke up crying....😳 On top of this the big girl also decided in the middle of the night to get out of her bed, walk straight past Mammy and daddy’s room and into her cousins’ bed!!! 

So the summery of the weekend where we were entrusted with the care of other people’s children was:

• We were late to take them.
• They were welcomed into a bomb site.
• There were axes available for their leisurely use.
• Their primary caregiver went out on the drink from tea time.
• They more or less looked after our 3 children.

Wonder if they’re available again next weekend...?