Vanquishing monsters

It is probably impolite to celebrate but the monsters are off for the weekend.  My marvelous brother and sister-in-law are once again taking care of the dear little mites.  What is more, they have been asked to bring bathers so that is a happy pair of monsters.

Much as I love the girls, being a full-time parent has its periods where you would like to gaffer-tape them to the inside of the garage to get some peace.  Eventually everything annoys you: hearing about dreams at top volume while you are slurping your first coffee; middens of hair elastics and library books; the astonishing capacity of children to destroy things (dishwasher doors turn out not to like being sat on, for example); the awful relationship between veggie intake and fartiness; and last but not least, the noisy, pointless fighting.

Sometimes I think it is time to give the game away - find some childcare and reinvigorate my brain and refresh my ego with a return to paid work.  (Because at $20/week cash in hand, this job definitely counts as volunteer work.)

But you have to remember why you do it:

1 Because life is crap for everyone when we are both working full-time.  There is exhaustion, pressure on careers as carer's leave is stretched to the outer limits, an even higher bug level as immune systems collapse, and a feeling that you are doing both paid work and parenting extremely badly.

2 Because when you do return to work, the monsters will always remember the time you set aside to do crafting, make cakes, read books, and wander the neighbourhood looking for trees to help them learn to climb.

Monsters dissecting dead IT

Frankly, I am damned lucky we have the choice so I will stop complaining and go and pick up the school monsters.  Byeeeee!