Ten Hours Later.....

Yesterday I agreed to watch my youngest daughter's two boys (7 months & 2 yrs) so she could go to a funeral. I tried to get an idea of how long she thought it would take her, the thought being if it was going to be a long time I would have my mind already accepting it. If it would be really a long time, I would say no, I can't babysit.

"The funeral is at 9am."

I'm thinking that seems rather early, but what do I know of funerals.

"Then there will be a 'gathering' afterwards where the family gets together."

I do a mental calculation... funeral at 9am, even if it starts late it should surely be done by 11am. Then a "party" afterwards. (I suppose I should use the term 'wake' or something, but 'party' is the word my daughter used. Should I have been alerted?) I estimate my daughter should be back between 2 and 3pm. Okay... I can do that.

The time goes by slowly. The baby has three 20 minute naps with hours between them. The two yr old has a nice two hour nap. None of which were at the same time.

The two yr old is curious, as they all are. He likes to see how things work and what they can do. The border on the bottom of the lamp shade can be peeled off, for example. It dangles now waiting for my glue to be found. The glass coffee table makes crunching noises when its pulled from the top, and the dining room chairs are not balanced well and tend to tip backwards when a youngster stands on it and leans over it.

Sigh. This place is not set up for children. It would be so much easier if it was.

Around 2pm I call 'mom' to see how much longer it will be. They are just now getting ready to go to the cemetary. Huh? Well, what can I say? I say nothing.

Around 5pm 'mom' calls to say she has to drop off her friend and kids and then she'll come get the boys. (Everyone won't fit in the car at the same time.)

Around 7:30pm she arrives. Both boys are asleep on the couch. This time the baby stays asleep.

'Mom' gets on the pc... she's cutting some cd's and talking on the phone. About 9pm they finally leave. If I count the time mom was here on the pc it makes it a 12 hour babysitting stint, but that would be petty. It was a 10 hour stint. I was ticked. I felt like I had been scammed...again. Is it true? Probably not, but its the way I was feeling at the time. I told 'mom' I wasn't going to babysit for her any more. She starts to protest but then simply says "whatever".

Now that its a new day I'm feeling badly about it all. If I don't babysit then when would I see the boys? I'll probably call my daughter later today and take it back. Then I'll be able to do the dance all over again. Sigh. I've turned into such a bitch. Sometimes its fun and other times it sucks.