Hi all!
First time-poster here :-)
Long story short: the last 3 months or so have been pretty trying for me. I have two teenage daughters (DD16 and DD13) from a previous marriage, and a 6 month old son, whose father decided to leave me out of the blue about 8 weeks ago, after deciding he doesn't love me anymore and would rather be single and carefree. My oldest daughter has been struggling with some severe anxiety, my mother has been very very ill, and there have been various other things going on in my life that have made things quite stressful.
I returned to full time work in a very demanding role after 18 weeks of paid maternity leave (I live in Australia). I would much prefer to be at home with my son, but I had an inkling his father wouldn't stick around even when my son was newborn, and he was not financially supportive for a long time prior to that.
Before he left, EXP and I decided to hire a live-in nanny for our son, as I was loathe to put him in daycare so young, and the cost worked out about the same as daycare for a live-in nanny (living costs, board, food utilities, etc) are incorporated into the pay.
I hired an amazing nanny, who was brilliant with my son and my older daughters, she fit in perfectly with our family and loved being our nanny. Unfortunately due to a family emergency, she had to leave us quite suddenly, leaving me in the lurch as far as daycare for my son, and this is where the amazing friends come in.
Friend 1: SAHM to 1 DS (3). volunteered to care for my son every single day last week, drove 45 minutes each morning to pick him up from my workplace (even on the days I started work at 7:00am) with her 3 yo in the car who usually sleeps in and was not at all inclined to be up that early.
I have psychologist appointments for my DD16 every Monday and Tuesday evening for an hour each, and my gorgeous friend kept my son late on those days so I could attend the appointments. She looked after him and loved him all week long, kept him overnight on Thursday as I had to stay at work until 9:30pm and start work at 7:00am the next day.
She has adamantly refused to accept any kind of payment, even for fuel. I booked my son into daycare near my work for this week, but they only have 3 days available.
Friend 2: works part time with DS(3) and DD(1.5)
Did a two hour drive leaving at 4:00am this morning with both kids, arriving at my house at 6:00am. Promptly took over from me with my son so I could get ready for work, fed him, cooked breakfast for the older four, and since I left for work has been sending me updates with pictures of my son enjoying himself, her dropping my daughters off at school and her cleaning my house!
She is staying overnight to care for my son again tomorrow and has brought bags of food with her to cook dinner for us all tonight.
Similarly, has flatly refused to let me reimburse or pay her in any way, shape or form.
I would love to show my appreciation to both of my friends for their unfailing support and generosity, but I'm at a bit of a loss. If any of you lovely folk have some creative ideas, I'd love to hear them! I'm not swimming in cash at present, but would really like to do something special for them :-)
Thanks lovelies!