Other People's Kids

I had planned to go paddling with the 50+ crew again tonight, would have been one of five and virtually no wind, not nearly as tough a practice as last Thursday. But yesterday I got a call from a friend in dire need of someone to look after her two boys tonight so she could go to a work function. You know she was desperate if she was calling me! Just kidding, I'm quite good with kids and I like to be around them, I just don't have enough opportunities. Her boys are 9 and 11 yrs and can be enthusiastic as many boys are. I figured I could handle what they dished out.

We all converged on the house at 6 pm, dinner was nearly ready and Diane had to run to get over to Bellevue. Made it through dinner just fine, they passed on the veg having negotiated double rations tomorrow if they skipped tonights. Ok by me, I knew they weren't pulling a fast one, Diane called it out to me on her way out the door. We ate at tv trays watching SpongeBob Squarepants followed by Drake & Josh. After dinner I went over M's math homework, two minor errors which we worked through and then the boys were playing games on the computer. I sat at the table and got to work on some of the stuff I hadn't finished during the day. We popped in a dvd of Apollo 13 and I made some popcorn and not the microwave kind, mind you! I worked with what I'd been handed. Thankfully, Ed had called me about something completely different and had made it this way before, talked me through it just fine, didn't even burn a single kernel and I don't think we had any of the unpopped kernels in there either!

Around 8:30 I brought up the discussion of showers. It came about that since M had taken the first one yesterday then F should take the first one tonight. I decided that at 8:50 F should hit the showers. I gave him a 5 minute heads up and both boys were deep into playing with their lego spaceships. At 8:50 F's ship had a critical structural failure and he wanted to complete repairs before showering. This was the only sticking point of the evening. I played it very cool, offered that if he didn't head for the shower I could carry him there, even got up and walked over to him. Decided a better course of action was to pick up each piece as he set them down until I had all the parts he so desperately wanted. Told him gently that they would all be waiting on the table when he finished his shower. There was a little tantrum and lots of foot stamping as he went upstairs to get his pjs and 'I hate my mother' muttered under his breath (curiously not me, though, go figure) as he stomped to the shower. When the water was running I told M that I wanted him to head straight in as soon as his brother finished. And he did. After showers were finished they wanted to finish watching the movie. I gave them another 10 minutes and then it was reading time. That was actually the part I'd looked forward to all evening. I brought along my Rudyard Kipling Just So Stories to read to them. I was even more excited after I learned that Diane hadn't even read them before. I also brought along the Carl Hiaasen kids novel Hoot. And just as I was about to have them turn the movie off Diane got home. I was actually a little disappointed I didn't get to read to them.

Mission completed. Boys were fine, no tears of rage or frustration from any of us. I think we all had a good evening. I've broken down another personal barrier, anxiety over being left with someone's kids. Especially kids who have been described as potentially challenging. I guess I'm up for the challenge. Hey, who needs a sitter?!?