Can't a mum get some sleep on the weekend?

I don’t know about you, but my Saturdays and Sundays are my lie-in days, where I can lay in a stupor in the morning and get up at my leisure, not having to jump to the urgent message of the alarm clock. Consequently, the weekends seem to be the days when my kids are up before me, excited by the freedom of no school, and the anticipation of what’s ahead – going out, meeting friends. This Sunday I was awoken by the sound of the smoke alarm going off. They were preparing their brunch, as they told me, and the burning toast set the alarm off. Not just the one alarm though. Five minutes later, another smoke alarm in another room goes off, then another one. I could hear their hurried footsteps as they ran around trying to locate them (we have alarms in every room).

This reminds me of the previous Sunday, when I was awoken to the sound of my two girls patrolling the house, locating spiders (it’s that spider time of the year, especially in our house, me being a less than keen housekeeper). They were spraying them. Thinking ‘oh no, the house will be filled with pesticide chemicals and we’ll all get ill’, I dragged myself out of bed to stop them. I discovered it wasn’t fly spray they were using, but body spray! I dread to think what its effect could have been. Either they died a slow death, or we will have an explosion in spider births due to spider romance!

Still on the subject of baths

The next person who tries to tell me kids need playstations, Nintendo DS, etc, can take a running jump. The only reason they NEED them is because they feel they do because the other kids have them. My youngest bought a small, 15p rubber shark at a charity shop recently, and she's had more fun out of that than any electronic device could ever provide. That rubber shark has given her lots of fun, and IMAGINATIVE fun. The other night, she described to me how the shark had rooms in the bubbles of the bath, a kitchen (to show me, she 'swam' the shark there), a bathroom, bedroom, lounge, and, of course, loo! It's lovely to see a child's imagination working, and to remember the games I played as a child too. I'm making the most of these times, before she grows up. Whatever there is to do in the house, or to worry about, put it all on hold, it can wait, and spend time with your kids.

Nocturnal House-Keeping

As I lay comatose in the bath tonight I was suddenly awakened by the sound of the hoover. It was my daughter, who had decided to clear the bomb-site which is known as her bedroom , and at the convenient time of 9.30pm. Tidying bedrooms is a job that happens once in a blue moon with my kids, and never without me nagging, so I lay quietly in the bath and did not utter a word. I thought about how when I was a kid my mum would have thrown a fit if I'd decided to do something like that at 9.30pm! Bless her, I totally understand, but I've learnt to take the blessings as they come, being a mum of three, knowing that if I put a halt to my daughter's nocturnal house-keeping antics, the job may not be done until the next blue moon.