Insta-parenting 101

Ben and I are currently taking care of three kids.  All at once. For multiple days. (scary thought eh?)

One of the pastors at our church and his wife, who are great people and take really good care of us, had to head out of town on a business trip for a few days and asked if we’d watch their kids for them.  (Did I mention there were THREE of them?)  Usually, I don’t think we’d be the ones they’d ask, but 2 of their kids (boys, ages 13 and 11) are in our Jr. High youth group, and we love hanging out with them, and apparently, they love hanging out with us too, so it worked well.

So, from Tuesday to Thursday of this week, Ben and I are living in their house, and running the show.  THey left EARLY Tuesday morning, so I drove over  as the kids woke up and got them ready for school, and we’ve been here since then.  I felt like I should put on my highest waisted pair of jeans that I own and feather my bangs….but I resisted.

Here’s a basic run-down of our time so far:

• I make three lunches.  I immedately feel insecure, because clearly, I’m not their mom, so how can I possibly make their lunch taste as good?
• I then immediately put a hole in the piece of bread I am buttering, by spreading too hard.
• I hide that piece and start a new piece.
• They fight.  I don’t say anything.
• They work it out and I think to myself “I can do this parenting thing…sometimes, they just need to communicate by themselves without me getting involved”
• Then they hit each other.
• I get them out the door.
• They come home after school and I ask if any of them have homework. Miracle upon miracles, NONE of them do. (hmmm…convenient)
• We hang out and I start supper.  We are having tacos.  I forget that I put the taco shells in the oven to warm up.
• Kid # 2 says “Something smells funny”
• Crap.  I run out to the store and buy more taco shells.
• We eat supper, and then, being the fun people we are, we decorate gingerbread houses with them.
• It’s a hit. 
• So is the pounds and pounds of candy and icing they consume in the process. 
• I start to worry that I will be cleaning up sugar vomit all night.
• So I become the candy nazi and tell them they can eat no more.
• Kid # 3 keeps eating them anyway, but she just becomes more sneaky at it.
• All of the houses at one point, fall apart.  But Ben comes to the rescue and fixes them.
• I will now have to continue to be a candy nazi and only let them eat portions of their houses between now and when their parents resume control.
• I put Kid # 3 to bed.  She informs me that each morning she comes in at 7 am to cuddle with mommy.
• hmm.  I am neither awake at 7, or your mommy . This could be a problem.
• I convince her to wait until 7:30.
• This morning I wake up to the cutest 7 year old standing beside my bed.  So I let her in, and we cuddle. 
• I thought this meant we would fall back to sleep.
• She thought this meant we should have a lengthy conversation in a whisper voice. 
• We did that. Then we got up, did the morning routine all over, and I got them out the door only 3 minutes behind schedule.

 

Well, that’s it so far.  They’re at school, I’m heading off to work, and we’ll all reconvene at 4 pm. At which point I think we’ll throw a pizza in the oven, play some cards and they’ll try desperately to convince me that “Of course mom would let us eat this entire gingerbread house today…we always do that”.