Kid-sitting

For the last week and a half I have been gone watching other people's kids while they have been out of town. A couple that used to be in our ward (who moved when they built their beautiful palace home) went to Ecuador on a humanitarian service trip because he is a doctor and was providing care to the people there. They have 4 boys (twins age 10 and younger boys 7 and 5). The parents were gone for a little over a week and I stayed for most of the time. I was there from Saturday afternoon to the following Friday morning when another sitter came to relieve me for the rest of the time (until Sunday night). The mom planned it this way because the boys didn't have school on Friday and felt it was too much to have one person spend the whole week with them (even with them in school during the day) then spend another 3 days with them home ALL day. I was very grateful for her thoughtfulness.

I have done things like this before but never 4 boys at one time. It was quite the learning experience. I cleaned up the 7 yr old's puke my first night and everything involved with that, had all the boys stay home from church because of it (wasn't sure how sick he was), dealt with the office and his teacher on Monday because they thought he might have the flu (he didn't, he just made himself sick because his parents were gone), cleaned up the huge mess the boys made from decorating Valentine sugar cookies for FHE, took the youngest and 2 friends to an afternoon of "fun" (the jungle gym and ice cream), played chauffeur driving the boys to all of their extra-curricular activities or picking up the youngest and his friend from preschool, cooked breakfast, lunch, and dinner every day, did 9 loads of laundry, lots of dishes, and endless cleaning up. Wow! That wasn't everything! I had to remind the boys to practice the piano, take showers or give baths, help with homework, remind them to do homework, stop them from fighting too much, keep a close eye on the sneaky 5 yr old and deal with his serious tantrums, get them to bed on time and clean up their messes. How do you mom's do it? It's a good thing kids generally come one at a time. I used to think boys would be so much easier than girls but now I'm not so convinced of that. I did have fun and definitely learned some things about parenting.

Once I got back from kid-sitting the 4 boys, I spent a few days out at the Washington coast with my family (will post that soon). I drove straight back to kid-sit for another family with 3 boys. The oldest is 15 and then 11 year old twins. I was there Monday evening until this morning. Three was easier especially because they were older and didn't need as much attention. I guess I'm just not used to so many boys...especially because boys are just so rowdy and have selective hearing (very irritating at times). Selective hearing applies to husbands too :) I love you Jaren! I sure am glad there will be two of us when we have kids (the Lord willing).

I'm glad these couple got some time away where they didn't have to worry about their kids back at home. The kids were taken care of and hopefully one day we will be able to have someone we trust come and stay with our kids so we can have some get-away time!