Given that I have now been ill for five weeks, and have had a cough for the last week that only shows itself if I exert myself in any way at all - you know, like walking through the house - I’m trying to have a weekend off from doing anything.
While tidying the kitchen up just now it struck me that for anybody with a young family, there really is no realistic concept of a “weekend off”.
Take this morning for example - up at the palacial time of 8am, made breakfasts for the younger children, had running battle with Little Miss Seven about her breakfast not being as big as her sister’s, let the chickens out, put the lego away, had a shower, got dressed, brushed my teeth, made W a drink and some toast, emptied the dishwasher, filled it back up again… all in all, a pretty normal first hour of the day around here.
There is a saving grace though. A completely unpredicted (although hoped for) turn of events. Our children are finally making friends in the neighbourhood.
Weekends have turned from attempts to hijack our attention and destroy the house, to hour upon hour spent in the playpark, or on the green in front of our house playing all manner of games with the children who live nearby. We still have the dilemma of our younger children who are not quite old enough to be out on their own, but their big sister happily accompanies them because she has friends out there too.
It’s fun catching fleeting glimpses of them making new friends, settling arguments, bargaining, competing, fighting, making up, and doing all the other things children do. While our children are pre-armed with many of the skills they need - by virtue of being sisters, and being surrounded by finite resources that they usually have to share to some extent - we can now only hope that we have done a good enough job in preparing them for the years to come.
Our job now changes to one of being there - being there to give advice when sought, to pick up, to rub the bruised ego, to distract, to chide, and do all the other things that parents do. No doubt in time the job will change into one closely approximating a bankcash-point, but for the moment we’ll enjoy the friends, the drama, and the mayhem.