The Return

CRASH

The clash of lifestyles was apparent the moment the children barrelled in the door, stormed the stairs and crashed into my arms at 7.43 a.m. All energy and excitement and VOLUME. Someone had definitely turned the volume down during their 8 day absence and the kids intrinsically operate on a different setting.


They were excited to tell me about the Cheesies and cookies and chips that they had eaten at Vacation Bible Camp (and we thought our kids could get through the week church-free because they weren't with Lorraine on the Sunday...) and about the wright whale and baby they had seen from a boat, and, and, and.

Germs. One forgets about them easily. But the kids left for NB at the tail end of a sniffle and Sebastian has returned with a new one.

Laundry. There was none in the suitcase. Lorraine had whipped those dirty clothes into shape in her new fancy-dancy laundry room. As for us, we slovenly parents were running out clean clothes as we hadn't done the laundry once all week.

There were however - despite my best efforts - new clothes in that same suitcase. "But Lorraine" I said on unfolding the 4th set of new clothes, "I thought new clothes were for their birthdays [which are only a few months away]". "Oh no" says their Nana " I have their birthday outfits for them too. These are the sale items".

We are undecided on whether "please and thank you" counts have decreased. We definitely note that "Can you help me eat?" requests from Sophie now occur at every meal. So someone was babying her in NB, George.