Well here we are, summer holidays underway and OMG!!! Somehow the kids are still alive but I really don’t know how. I have been so busy trying not to bang their heads together that I have hardly been near the PC. Well, that and my son has been on it almost constantly.
The very first day of the holidays I got the backdated tax credits and decided to take my eldest shopping for all those last-minute baby things she hasn’t got yet. Of course I had to take all of the children, so we traipsed around town with the promise of a visit to Hobbycraft if they were good. So they were good. We went to Hobbycraft and bought origami paper for #2 and paint-by-numbers for #3. Happy children. But…..
But…..
But then we had to go to Mothercare and Argos, next to each other on a shopping estate some distance away. #2 and #3 didn’t want to come in. I went into Mothercare with #1 and #4. We got some bits in there. We went to put them in the car. I checked on the others. I had parked in the shade and left the windows down so they wouldn’t die or anything. I asked them if everything was okay and it all seemed fine so I popped over the road to Argos with #1 and #4 still in tow. We looked in the book and ordered our stuff quickly. #4 dashed out of the doors and had to be caught by a nice man before she ran straight under the wheels of a large car. This was mildly embarrassing, but I was hot on her heels at the time. Anyway, we had taken about 5 minutes to do this, and then had to wait about 5 minutes for our goods – you know how Argos works, with the book and everything….anyway.
I was literally collecting the stuff when my name was called out. I looked around and a middle-aged woman came rushing over. “Your children are rather disturbed in the car,” she said. “There is another lady staying with them. They said you were in Argos and told me your name.” I don’t know if she was disapproving or not, I was so embarrassed. I did say, “Oh, they’re probably fighting.” and managed to thank her before I rushed off.
I got to the car and there was indeed another lady standing by. All was quiet apart from some subdued sobbing from the back seat. As soon as I appeared on the scene the shouting began again, with both of the children wanting to fill me in on their version of events first. The woman explained that there had been screams and things being thrown out of the windows, which had prompted her and the first woman to see what was happening. I thanked lady number 2 and told the children to shut up as I was not interested in what they had been up to. I was very unhappy with their behaviour and the fact that they had dragged all these other people into it, and I did NOT want to hear another word about it. It took 10 minutes for them to fully get the message, but in the end peace was restored.
So that’s it. I can’t leave them alone together for 10 minutes EVER. World war 3 will surely break out if I do. Today I was out with them again and ended up having to make them walk one on either side of me so they couldn’t fight.
Roll on September…this is going to be a LOOOOONG holiday.
