Thursday, August 6, 2009

Pretend Parenting, Part II ... The Night Shift.

The parents' bedroom is beautiful and has one of those huge, king sized beds with an abundance of pillows and a down comforter -- the type that you see in a movie and just want to crawl into. I could have almost convinced myself that I was staying in a posh hotel until 2:22am.

When the door to your "master suite" creaks open at 2:22am, you know it's not good news. I got myself to roll over, open my eyes, and look towards the door (literally commanding myself "Must... open... eyes...") and I got to handle my first bed wetting. Fortunately, the king size bed was roomy enough that he could crawl into bed with me and let me wait to change the bed in the morning. This was after I pulled him out of bed at 11pm, leading his zombie-like self to the bathroom, balancing him in front of the toilet, and instructing him to pee (he didn't bother to aim).

Today I'm feeling frustrated because, regardless of how many special activities we do, the kids still fight incessantly, have attitudes, and "are bored." I know that's a familiar line for all parents. They've been pestering to do the Easter egg hunt all day (although their eggs are quickly diminishing, as they lose eggs for misbehaving), so now that I've taken my 15 minute sanity break, I guess we'll go have an Easter egg hunt.

Wednesday, August 5, 2009

Pretend Parenting, Part I

Well, I am doing a long, overnight babysitting job (Wed-Sat), so I thought I might actually have some blog worthy happenings in my life. It seems as though to have a successful blog you must either be a parent or traveling abroad in some exotic country. (Although I did have a fabulous trip to Seattle, which included a chocolate factory tour -- complete with hair nets --, miles of walking, and great conversation. Yay for short get-aways!).

I am watching three kids, ages 21 months - 5 years. To put things in perspective, my brave "adventure" today was piling the three kids into the minivan and going to QFC. Those kids carts with the car in the front look fun but man are they hard to steer! I felt my obliques really working as I tried to avoid crashing into any food displays (I'll count that as my workout for the day, thanks). The kids did fairly well, although I did have to repeatedly threaten to take away their special treat, which their parents left for an evening snack, along with a sweet note. I would have felt too heartless withholding this, so I gave in to empty threats.

The 5 year old was on the right track when he cleaned out his soccer cleats by banging the soles together. He erred when he did it in the middle of the carpet, sending grass chunks EVERYWHERE (man, those things can hold a lot of grass!).

For dinner, I introduced the kids to Sloppy Joes, which they seemed to enjoy. The 3 1/2 year old is on a modified Atkins diet, which, from what I can tell, consists of hot dogs, pretzels, Otter pops, and fruit. He did surprise me by eating 1/2 of his sloppy joes (sans bun, of course) before deciding he didn't like them afterall.

I hope I can keep them busy for the next 2 1/2 days. I have an even greater appreciation for stay at home moms, especially during the summer months. I have a few things up my sleeve, such as an egg hunt (which I'm hoping we can recreate dozens of times), playing with balloons (which seem to be the timeless, tireless toy), making cookies, and meeting my mom and sister for lunch for moral support. And trips to the park, of course.

So here's to all those brilliant moms who tackle this stuff day in and day out without the incentive of being able to sit on the couch for 48 hours eating ice cream after their "shift" ends.