Aaaaaaannndddd.....

[Ilovenannyplum]

They've gone back to their mum
Operation clean up after 4 kids starts now

Before I get a load of abuse. This is lighthearted. I do like them most of the time ð???

Baby DS (yes, we're that family with 400 kids) is asleep. So I'm just sitting and enjoying the silence. Ohhh it's good

Feel Ya enjoy! I have operation clear up every Sunday

I stood and listened to our household yesterday - lots of good humoured yelling, shouting and general noisiness from dh, dsd and ds and protested: "You're such a noisy bunch when you all get together!" But I love it. Sounds like a real family home when we're all here together. Looking forward to my when peace descends though!

Enjoy your Littlelion

I've rather selfishly enjoyed having DS all to myself this afternoon. And not having to constantly yell at DSS's "MIND THE LEGO" everytime the newly mobile baby made a beeline for it.
They'll learn to put it on the table so their brother doesn't go crashing through whatever masterpiece they've just created and subsequently ruins

I too mount operation clean up every Sunday, only this time the DSC are here for a month . I may actually need to hire a professional outfit to help restore peace to the house after that!!

Maybe just demolish your house and build a new one? Probably less work

Ugh, 14yo dss seems to be here full time for the whole summer. His mother hasn't arranged any childcare and can't take any time off work, other than the holiday she is having with her own dp and not her ds, he'll be with us then and we're taking him away for a week and we're paying for him to go to a weeks camp, she refuses to pay towards it. He's not been at hers for three of the last four weeks, and has been with us every weekend.
So I can't see any time I'm going to get a bit of time just with dp. We're not having a holiday on our own.

Oh Melon, that sounds rubbish. Also feel a bit sorry that DSS has been basically abandoned by his mum. Hope you manage to get a bit of time for you and DP

We're going on a UK holiday next week and taking DSC and DS and PIL, lucky me , my DSC's mum is taking her other DS (not my DP's) and her DP abroad.
This gives me the rage. She's basically shipped 90% of her kids off and only taking the one because she can't afford to take all of them.
We get England, she gets Cyprus. She wins.

It is rubbish for him that she has more or less dumped him. She can't respond to dp's text asking if she could take a day off to take dss to an event we have paid for (dp has booked a days leave just in case, but it would be nice if he didn't have to do all the time off) but she managed to text dss today to tell him she had met one of his teachers from school and he was chatting her up. Self centred much?

It is going to be a tricky summer. At 14 he's old enough to be on his own a lot of the time but we know from his recent bad behaviour that leaving him on his own isn't a good idea.

We're staying in a cottage near dp's parents in Aug, so the two of them get to hang out with the cousins etc and I can stay quietly in the cottage.

dp and I work full-time but luckily can work at home now and then. I have had to take quite a few (unpaid because I am self employed) days off to cover the summer activities. dp is away with work a big too, unavoidable but frustrating.

Dp has said he's trying to get her to have him Thu and Fri this week, but she's also not responding to those messages.

Melon that is quite awful behaviour from his mum, I'm really shocked at how she thinks that's acceptable
But good for you for stepping up, it's hard especially when they aren't 'yours' but he sounds v lucky to have you.
And it's her that will miss out, she'll never get that time back with him