You’d think, four children down the line, that I wouldn’t still be making rookie mistakes. First time around, I babyproofed the house. We had baby gates. We had locks in the video drawer, which itself was in a locked cabinet, which had those cushion cover things on the corners. I had reins for those times when she refused to hold my hands. We had cheap all in one sofas from Ikea, with removable washable covers, that we bought spares of in preparation.
Child no 3 is now 2. The baby gate is leaning on the wall in the hall. Our sofa came from the charity shop, and is going to be in no fit state to return there. I found the box of safety locks in one of the crates upstairs, and scratched my head for a while wondering what the thing that slots in the video drawer was for, all video machines being long gone from our house. Instead we’ve computers all over the place, and Smallest is adept at climbing up on to chairs to access them, so that she can click on her frog and play Thomas on her profile. When Tigerboy gets to age 2, Smallest will be four, and I’m seriously considering hiring a round the clock nanny and moving out. Or maybe I could build an extension, with a sort of adult sized version of a catflap that doesn’t let small children through, so I could sit of an evening on my quality sofa (look, I can dream) with a glass of wine and my feet up…
I ought to know how to do all this stuff, but I never had a little toddler and a baby before, and given that the older two are both in their own individually challenging phases (is there a non challenging phase a child goes through at any point please?) I bounce from crisis to crisis, attempting to remain calm through the haze of sleep deprivation, and wonder precisely who is taming who. I think Smallest has me wrapped around her little finger – she’s certainly got her big brother leaping to her every command, and I suspect once Tigerboy is a little more independent he’ll be just as bad.
I’m not sure where I went wrong. It might be in having children in the first place… 😉
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