soapboxdiner

Where I bitch about the limitations of my personal freedoms

When The Good Neighbor asked me if I could take the girls from 6-6:30 pm M-F for a couple of weeks I said sure.

Cuz we single moms gotta stick together. Help is sparse when it's free.

But ya know? It was only supposed to be for a couple weeks in October, then her babysitting situation would iron itself out. It's been like 5 weeks now, and half the time the Good Neighbor doesn't get home until 7-7:30.

If I need to go to the grocery after work? Can't. Go fill up the gas tank? Can't. Want to go out to dinner or a movie or run an errand? Can't.

And the thing? If I start dinner for Steven and myself, the kids are there with the their big, hungry googly eyes. So I end up giving them a snack or feeding them dinner 3-4 nights a week now - and when a budget is used to feeding only two, when it suddenly has to feed 4-5 fairly consistently, it does create a strain.

And the toys they used to be so good at picking up before they went home? Scattered and left on my floor. Crayons and markers and craft paper and Lite Bright pegs and toy cars and, well, a bunch of other miscellaneous crap that doesn't belong on my floor.

It's just that this was supposed to be temporary, and now it looks like it's going to be this way indefinitely. And I love the Good Neighbor and her children and all that, but I really would like my house and my evenings back.

Waa. I'm just bitching. Honestly. There's no way I'd force the situation Good Neighbor is in. She's got enough on her plate and the circumstances with her having to work late are really out of her control. But. From now on the kids aren't leaving this house until all the crap is picked up and my house is back in the condition in which I left in the morning. That's the very least.

And I suppose it will be better. Steven's in swimming two nights a week now, so there's a break, at least through the end of the year. Hopefully the Good Neighbor won't be on mandatory OT in the 0-4 and seeing her and kids can go back to being for fun, rather than out of obligation.

8:51 am - 11.16.03
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