The parenting experiment

Those of you who know me will be aware that I have no children. I have one nephew and three nieces but I know that's not even close to the same thing. I was asked a few months back to mind two of those nieces over a long weekend while my sister and her husband were away for work. The kids are pretty easy to mind so once I got the go ahead from work I agreed. Its not like I am a complete novice, I have babysat my nieces over night before and I work in social care so there are many elements of my day to day work that is similar to looking after children. I decided that myself and my boyfriend would go away for a few days just before said niece sitting because our two year anniversary was coming up and I thought it made more sense to take a longer holiday and do both. The week before said holiday I somehow ended up working 72 hours and was on my way to the airport only a few hours after finishing work on the Sunday. Due to us starting the holiday very tired and my inability to find food to eat while holidaying, I did not return rested. We got back late on the Thursday night and I found myself both packing and unpacking my suitcase and early the next morning I was on my way to Clonmel. Now that's enough background/excuses for one blog post.

So shortly after 11am on Friday morning I found myself in charge of two young girls aged 7 and 9. They were equal parts excited about having auntie Laura for a whole weekend and sad their parents would be gone. I am sure anyone who has children of their own will find it hilarious how flat out tired I found myself over the next few days because while I had some idea how much minding children can be, I don't think I really understood it until I found myself without another adult to hand the children over to. That's a quintessential part of being an auntie, you get to do all the fun stuff but as soon the children become tired and irritable you summon the parents and skip home to have a nap or whatever. I imagine had I started my long weekend reasonably refreshed I would have found myself less flummoxed by the whole thing but I did not so even though I enjoyed spending time with them, it was in some ways overwhelming.

I have worked with kids a lot before so I know enough to know I was lucky to be minding two very sweet and well behaved children. There were no tantrums and not too many tears over the weekend. So it wasn't so much the girls that had me exhausted but all the many other things you need to do when looking after them. I may have cheated a bit by allowing them to pick their own clothes but I am thinking life is too short to spend a morning arguing with my nieces over outfits. Even with that left up to them there was a whole lot of dish washing, hoovering, clothes washing, cooking, tidying and general organising. A lot of coaxing and using a stern but not too cross voice and entertaining. The entertaining bit was fine, that's really the part I happen to very good at. We made Halloween decorations, had a great Halloween party with loads of games, watched movies and read stories together. It was like all the parts I used to like about my old job without all the bits I hated. 

I did not do much sitting down because I found myself falling asleep soon after the girls went to bed, I was hungry a lot because in my tired state I became very bad at feeding myself while also thinking of things to give to two slightly fussy ladies (not that I am in any position to criticize). The thing I found hardest was when you are so used to just doing stuff by yourself or with other adults is trying to do relatively simple tasks like leaving the house or going shopping with two small people. It takes so much longer, I had no idea. Its the getting them to eat that bit faster, getting them find shoes and jackets, getting them to stop play wrestling the store so you can go pay. All of that stuff I was totally unprepared for. It gives me a greater appreciation for everything my sister does but also makes me wonder how she manages to leave the house at all.
I even did my very first school run. I found it all very stressful and was running around Sunday night trying to find school bags and uniforms and prepare lunches. I got them there looking reasonably presentable, on time and with everything they needed for a school day so I'd consider that a success.

In all the weekend went well. The girls were happy and entertained, well fed and no one was injured bar the time one of them banged her toe. As well as that I managed to get through most of the never ending pile of laundry ( I felt panicked just seeing it) and return the house to a reasonably presentable state so I will admit to being pleased about that. I was however exhausted and slightly overwhelmed by the whole thing so I was only too happy to hand over the reigns to their parents upon their return. I am happy to go back to just feeding me and driving without the litany of questions but I will miss them now that I am home and I am especially jealous that I don't get to the next part of the book we were reading.