Our First Taste of Parenting

This past weekend was a busy one here in Mountaineer Nation.  We were asked by our agency to babysit three children on Saturday 8-5 and Sunday 8-12.  Their ages:  5, 3, and 1. {Insert instant panic from moi.}  I love kids about 8-9 years of age and up.  Any children younger than that, well, we don't mesh well is probably the best way to put it.  Some kids I just can't stand.  It's not a pretty sentence to read or type but it's a truthful statement. 

I've only changed 2 diapers in my life.  I don't ever have any desire to change another one so I started to freak out about that.  The one year old has pretty significant handicaps.  I don't want to divulge any of their private information (who knows who reads this) so I won't say what but it was enough to make me call my bestest friend in the whole wide world and ask her to please help me this weekend.  The older kids are at the age when kids grate on my nerves the worst.  I don't know how to entertain children that age.  They scare me. 

Jeff and I have known we are best suited for parenting tweens and teens.  I know they come with their own attitudes and challenges but I'm better able to handle those then two kids fighting over the same play dough.  FYI: play dough is the BEST product on the planet.  I never knew how long kids would play (read: be quiet and require no major redirection) with play dough.  We only had minor sharing issues and repeated requests to "please don't feed the dog play dough" and "yes I know made a pizza but it's not safe for the doggie."

My husband had them outside running around throwing footballs.  In fact they kept calling Jeff "daddy" and I could see on his face that while he was not comfortable around their ages, he was IN LOVE with being called Daddy. 

At one point we had six adults to three children.  I felt like a total failure.  I just didn't know what to do.  It didn't start off right.  The foster parents "moved in" with a pack and  play, toys that made ungodly noises/songs/sounds, cartoons were on the TV and while the children ran into the house and immediately began running up the steps and the foster mom went directly to my kitchen (she' never been here before and I'd never met her before) and started putting stuff in my fridge that I almost said, "EVERYBODY OUT!"  I immediately wanted to sit down in a quiet room, put my fingers in my ears and cry.

My fridge needs cleaned out.  I don't know what all was in it but I know it's had a pizza box and some left over containers and a bunch of stuff I need to throw away but haven't had time to do it so the thought this woman took over my house really pissed me off.  Who does that????

I feel like my friends did way more with the kids than I did.  I feel like I sucked as a parent.  I couldn't wait for the days to be over to have my house back.  I'm not saying I've decided not to parent.  We very much want to be parents but just not this age.  We have seen how much our home will change (t.v. can't have news on all the time, the kids get fed before you eat, etc) and it's weird yet good at the same time.

I'm tired today.  Let's not forget to mention that both days the kids were here were the worst days of my allergies.  On Saturday my right eye had been swollen shut until noon and I needed to take copious amounts of benedryl to just breathe. 

Lola was a tremendous help.  She loved having kids to play with but she's old and got tired and was soon OVER the entire thing:

Today I'm cleaning the Master bedroom.  I've folded so much laundry!!  I still need to finish dusting, change the sheets, and vacuum up all the pet hair on the floor.  Every room in my house needs attention so I'm taking each room one day at a time.  I'll be back later with before/after pictures!!!