Please check out the April Blogging from A to Z Challenge
#AtoZChallenge
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This year I'm writing about things connected with Being a Grandparent. For an introduction to my grandchildren check out my theme reveal here.
Grand sitting
I have done a lot of grandsitting over the last 6 years
especially when you include childcare.
When my daughter went back to work after her maternity leave
I looked after Nathan 2 days per week.
It was hard work as my daughter and her wife didn’t live that close to
us and I had to use public transport to get to them – driving would have taken
much longer and probably been more stressful.
It was daunting at first as it was all new again but we soon got into
our routines.
Then it was Rory’s turn to have Nanny for a while. Once he moved on to full time nursery I
switched to Vinny 1 day a week and the plan had been to have Ella on a another
day but Ella didn’t settle well at nursery and always seemed to catch every
cough and cold going that before we could establish a regular routine her
Mummies decided that my DIL would be a stay at home Mum for a while until Ella
was a bit older.
So now I only look after them as and when needed. Covering things like staff training days at
school or nursery closures or doing school pick ups. Or evenings when the parents want a night
out. I think I’m doing more now that when it was a regular one day a week!
And of course some days are easier than others.
Until recently Ella would scream when left with me but the
last time went much better so hopefully we’ve turned a corner there.
Rory and Vinny are good sleepers so doing an evening stint
with them is no problem and, although we don’t see them as often, Noah and
Miles also sleep well at our house so they’re usually no problem either.
I think one of the hardest days we had was back when Noah
and Rory were still quite little (about 18 months old) and both their sets of
parents had been invited to the same wedding.
This meant looking after both of them for the day and into the
evening. How hard could that be? Lots of people cope with twins every
day. I had Hubby with me. A doddle I thought. Well I take my hat off to anyone with twins
or multiples. Everything took such a
long time. Getting them ready to go out
for a walk in the park took ages – it was October so of course that meant hats
and coats and shoes etc. Then we had to
feed them. Not too much of a problem as
we’d got two highchairs for the day until we noticed that Rory was trying to
pinch Noah’s food so we had to move them further apart!
Bedtime proved tricky too. Rory went down without too much fuss but Noah had had enough of us by then I think and wanted Mummy. We did finally get him to sleep though.
Poor thing was exhausted - as were we.
Yes it’s lovely having them but sometimes it’s good to be able to give them back!
My grands (only two) were nearly 2,000 miles away when they were little. When they were older, we got them for two weeks every summer which was wonderful but we never had them as babies or toddlers. You are blessed!!
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