Yesterday I practised having four kids. At 3yrs, 2yrs, 11 months and 4 months it was, ok, not technically possible they were all mine, but great fun anyway. My dear hubby was hoping it would put me off the idea but ha ha no luck. He should organise some really badly behaved kids to come round if he wants to put me off.
My friend and I have started a most excellent arrangement of swapping childcare two afternoons a week - in a small town our childcare options are limited and we are both in similar situations, doing the accounts for our businesses while our kids destroy whatever they can reach (up to the 20th of the month it's open season round here).
We both have two older boys who can grunt at each other in total communication already, who can merrily spending the large part of two hours trying to play with the same toy, ride the same bike, eat the same biscuit. My son this week was a wimp - crying at the slightest push - and who used the 'running to Mummy' tactic to deal with the invasion of his person toy space. I tried NOT to reinforce this coping mechanism by being impartial, cool as a cucumber and mostly not interested. We had one chat about the rules - We don't hit our friends, We take turns, We are careful around the little kids. They seemed to have a few tussles but I guess even the small fry need to work out their own pecking order - the boundaries of their friendship.
That night at dinner I asked WG why he cried so much while playing with J. He said "J pushed me.' I asked 'Did you push him?' He replied with some satisfaction 'Yep.'
The littliest adoptee was a perfect angel. I had her in the front pack pointing away so she couldn't see I wasn't her Mum, and I did catch her looking at me in the mirror strangely at one point. She had a good old kick in the portacot (mostly in there to protect her from 3 older boys trying the maul her with love). I only had her for 2 hours but couldn't resist trying to dress her up in a hat from my 'pink box' - hand me downs not required so far for two sons, but who optimistically live in the baby room cupboard.
The biggest challenge was my nearly 1 year old. He liked to peer over the portacot edge, willing his little friend to grow faster so he would have someone to play with. If he did venture into the big boys domain he was given the naff-est car to play with. He spent 20 minutes sitting on the trike watching the boys race around playing toddler-dodgems. He only sat still cos he can't work it yet.
It was fun and I managed to get one chore done in two hours - dishwasher unpacked - quite impressed with myself for coping. Even better today I got to leave my two at my friends house and - sodding the accounts - trucked off to have my eyebrows shaped.
HOORAY for swap-sies!!
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