In two days, the boys & I will be leaving on a Grammy, Mommies & Kids weekend getaway (no babies, no Daddies, no pets, no Papas) with my mom, sister & niece. As usual, in the 48 hours leading up to our trip, my To Do list jumped from about 6 items to practically 20. Inevitably in those 2 days I get about 3 things crossed off my list, stay up until 2 am the night before the trip and wind up feeling unjustifiably frustrated that kids require me to focus on them as if its a normal day and their backpacks of fun will just pack themselves.
Not today. Today was different. Today we had Kayla.
I know in my last post I confessed to being a tiny bit anxious about the whole babysitter thing. It didn't help matters much when Dallas called yesterday and said she'd just gotten a spot in a really popular drivers ed program and Kayla would be coming alone for the 1st 5 weeks (I'm sure she's super psyched about driving and all, but she doesn't turn 16 until FEBRUARY and therefore has plenty of time to take a class that doesn't conflict w/my mommy time, but whatever). It got worse when I casually mentioned to the boys that the nice girl from down the street would be coming to play w/them and Andy went pale, asked if I would be there too and then burst into tears when I explained I would be upstairs.
Even though every fiber in my being was screaming "This is wrong, all wrong!" (it felt very similar to this one time in college when I considered buying $200 white leather pants), I decided to go ahead w/it anyway. I was afraid if I didn't I'd end up becoming the type of mom who forces her 12 year old to check in w/her every 5 mins...when he's hanging out upstairs.
So promptly at 9:30 this morning our doorbell rang, I ushered Kayla in and spent 25 mins going over rules, safety precautions and a demonstration how to pin Aidan to the floor and change his pull-up if a person wants to avoid scrubbing poop off the carpet and/or various parts of her body.
Then I went upstairs.
And in 2 hours, I got SEVEN things crossed off my to do list.
Seven.
And Andy didn't cry.
And Aidan didn't choke.
And now the boys won't be required to text me from their bedrooms.
8 comments:
It's great that you are doing this for yourself...and for your boys, too. You will all benefit from this.
Yay! I'm SO happy for you that it went well!
But, white leather pants? That could have made for an awesome picture, $200 or not. ;)
Go you!!! Amazing what some focused time can do, no?!
Hurray for your success! I might just start getting a helper one night a week or on Saturdays.
Good news...glad it went so well.
White leather pants made me giggle. :)
Great job! Will you be my support group for when I eventually find someone able to watch my kids?!
I remember babysitting neighborhood kids while their parents were upstairs, thinking "Please, please don't let the kids scream and cause Mrs. So-and-so to come down here! She'll think I'm the worst!" Now it's a whole different perspective from the other side. I know how much you love to-do lists... you'll be hooked on this babysitter thing in no time. ;) Yea!
Hope you guys are having a great time in Florida!
Good for you! And the boys! Horray for Mommy time:).
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