OMG OMG - How will I cope with this? Help!

[MichelleCarmen]

There are four kids running around in my house! FOUR. I do not know how people do it. Even two is too much for me. . .

Ugh, guess I better go check on them.

 

[MichelleCarmen]

Ahhh. . a kitty wearing a Hello Kitty outfit!

(not my photo)

 

[MichelleCarmen]

Hello Kitty House (yes, this is mine!

)

 

[Italiahaircolor]

Ha! Good luck.

 

[Haven]

Oh, I LOVE what you''ve done with your home!

Whenever we have a lot of little ones running around the house I dump out all my stickers, colored paper, and crayons onto the floor of our spare bedroom and yell "Have at it!" That always keeps them occupied for hours.

The only downside is pulling the runaway stickers up off the wood floor when they''re done.

 

[chiapet]

No way!! Is that Hello Kitty house for real??? I am obsessed with Hello Kitty! I need more pictures of the HK house!

 

[iheartscience]

Hahaha...no words of wisdom but I love your kitty and house!

As a bad aunt, I like to sometimes hide in a bedroom and play on my iPhone when I'm in a house with 3 or more nieces and nephews. Can't you just lock yourself in a room somewhere and tell them not to do anything they're not supposed to do? I bet that would work!

 

[cindygenit]

Hmmm i have no real advice, but i have three siblings!! How did my mum ever control us?

FEAR! Lol

I have 3 brothers who are all bit hyper, it was the only way she could get some peace and quiet in the house (they fought ALL the time)

 

[trillionaire]

How fun! A house full of kiddies is a ton of fun, you just have to engage them in structured activities. You can make things up, or act things out... just be a big kid with them, it''s a blast!

Baking is especially fun! Kids love to help decorate cookies or cupcakes, etc. Or helping to measure ingredients for batter... Gah, I miss playing with kids. Over New Year''s last year, I spent at least 2 hours playing with my future nephew in the dark... playing with glow in the dark toys in the laundry room! We were laughing and having such a good time, his parents kept coming to check on us to see if we were okay

Kids are great! And be happy that you can send them home...

 

[Blackpaw]

Lock yourself in a secure room, have a martini, and let them do what they will....

 

[AGBF]

I don't know why, but somehow the urgency in your "voice", made me remember a day when my one child had two other little girls over at our house playing in the third floor playroom upstairs. (This was when we lived in Connecticut, before moving to Virginia. My daughter was young.) The play was relatively quiet, but then the police called. They said that (if I recall correctly) someone had reported a baby missing from my home. I told them that no one had done so. The policeman on the phone insisted that, yes Ma'am, someone had done so, and that it had sounded like a child. After conquering my shock, I sought the only possible source of the problem ...up on the third floor. The little Irish girl from next door (who was a year younger than the other two) and the daughter of the orthopedic surgeon were in there with my daughter. The doctor's daughter had, apparently, actually made the call. She seemed amazed that the police could find us. No one had any idea that tying up the police/emergency lines to play games was an unwise idea. Fun memory. Next time ask me about, "The Howdy Game". (In that my daughter was zipped up inside her parka and passed between her best friends who took turns punching her yelling, "Howdy!" before passing her on to the next one. I learned about it after it had been played for weeks when my daughter one night said to me, "I don't like 'The Howdy Game'").

AGBF

 

[House Cat]

How''d it go MC? Did anything get broken?

Four kids is the story of my life. It keeps me young. Well, that''s what I try to tell myself, as the gray hair keeps popping in!

 

[MichelleCarmen]

Everything went fine! I sent the other two kids home a short time after getting offline. lol

When they showed up, I was making my lunch (around 2:30) and one of the kids kept saying how good it smelled and finally after her comments continued, I ended up making her lunch (which normally I never do. . .I do not want to be the mom in the house where all the kids go to to bum food from! I usually send the kids home when they start asking for food!), and then they played quietly for about 1/2 hour. It wasn''t until my younger son turned Pink Floyd on really loud that I said, "okay, guys, fun and games are OVER." They were fine with that.

Normally, I have activities planned, but when kids just pop in any old time, then often I let them have "free play."

Hopefully today is a quiet day.

 

[MichelleCarmen]

Date: 8/27/2009 10:31:39 PM
Author: thing2of2
Hahaha...no words of wisdom but I love your kitty and house!

As a bad aunt, I like to sometimes hide in a bedroom and play on my iPhone when I''m in a house with 3 or more nieces and nephews. Can''t you just lock yourself in a room somewhere and tell them not to do anything they''re not supposed to do? I bet that would work!

Yes, the locks on the doors are my best friends. Whoever built all the houses in our neighborhoods didn''t install locking bedroom doors. I can lock myself in my master bath and play with my nail polishes, but first I have to barricade the bedroom door with the piles of laundry that I never get around to washing. lol

My kids are actually very very good at not doing "bad" things. The only recent questionable activity was when the other day when they put blueberries inside ziplocks and tried microwaving them. (They did that while I was outside in the back yard picking more of the berries for us to freeze. They were so proud and came out and showed me what happened.

Luckily the blueberry didn''t explode out of the bag!)

 

[MichelleCarmen]

Date: 8/27/2009 11:06:08 PM
Author: trillionaire
How fun! A house full of kiddies is a ton of fun, you just have to engage them in structured activities. You can make things up, or act things out... just be a big kid with them, it''s a blast!

Baking is especially fun! Kids love to help decorate cookies or cupcakes, etc. Or helping to measure ingredients for batter... Gah, I miss playing with kids. Over New Year''s last year, I spent at least 2 hours playing with my future nephew in the dark... playing with glow in the dark toys in the laundry room! We were laughing and having such a good time, his parents kept coming to check on us to see if we were okay

Kids are great! And be happy that you can send them home...

Yeah, baking goes over well. If we have a day already planned for kids coming over, I have a short list of actities and stuff for us to do so kids are kept in check.

It''s only when they show up out-of-the-blue that things get wild. I''ll be busy doing laundry while my own children are quietly playing with legos. . .next thing I know, it''s mayhem! I love having other kids over, but I don''t like having them just showing up unless it''s a sunny day and I can kick them all outside.

lol Most of the kids are good. There one kid that''s no longer allowed to come over because he rolled his eyes at me once when I told him to quiet down!

 

[MichelleCarmen]

Date: 8/28/2009 12:05:43 AM
Author: Blackpaw
Lock yourself in a secure room, have a martini, and let them do what they will....

Ha, I was thinking, "I need a drink." Don''t ask me why, but I googled "Hello Kitty Vodka," and that house popped up in the google image search! lol

Still looking for the Vodka (even though I don''t drink hard liquor).

 

[somethingshiny]

Most of the summer I''ve had my son and 3-6 of the neighbors at my house every day. You just tell them who''s boss and threaten them if they don''t listen. LOL.

I''m big on playing outside, kids are SOO much easier outside than inside!

 

[fleur-de-lis]

Date: 8/28/2009 12:15:54 PM
Author: MC

Date: 8/27/2009 10:31:39 PM

Author: thing2of2

Hahaha...no words of wisdom but I love your kitty and house!

As a bad aunt, I like to sometimes hide in a bedroom and play on my iPhone when I''m in a house with 3 or more nieces and nephews. Can''t you just lock yourself in a room somewhere and tell them not to do anything they''re not supposed to do? I bet that would work!

Yes, the locks on the doors are my best friends. Whoever built all the houses in our neighborhoods didn''t install locking bedroom doors. I can lock myself in my master bath and play with my nail polishes, but first I have to barricade the bedroom door with the piles of laundry that I never get around to washing. lol


My kids are actually very very good at not doing ''bad'' things. The only recent questionable activity was when the other day when they put blueberries inside ziplocks and tried microwaving them. (They did that while I was outside in the back yard picking more of the berries for us to freeze. They were so proud and came out and showed me what happened.

Luckily the blueberry didn''t explode out of the bag!)

Uh oh, MC, in light of your earlier post I have to ask: *this* isn''t why you want a lock on your home''s master bedroom, is it?

 

[MichelleCarmen]

Date: 8/28/2009 5:39:34 PM
Author: fleur-de-lis


Uh oh, MC, in light of your earlier post I have to ask: *this* isn''t why you want a lock on your home''s master bedroom, is it?

oooh, I love that!!! (This is so TMI, but there was an episode of Northern Exposure (not sure if you''ve seen that show) where one of the characters paints her master bathroom pink and the husband has tons of disfunctional type problems because of it! lol)

 

[MichelleCarmen]

Date: 8/28/2009 1:07:52 AM
Author: AGBF



I don''t know why, but somehow the urgency in your ''voice'', made me remember a day when my one child had two other little girls over at our house playing in the third floor playroom upstairs. (This was when we lived in Connecticut, before moving to Virginia. My daughter was young.) The play was relatively quiet, but then the police called. They said that (if I recall correctly) someone had reported a baby missing from my home. I told them that no one had done so. The policeman on the phone insisted that, yes Ma''am, someone had done so, and that it had sounded like a child. After conquering my shock, I sought the only possible source of the problem ...up on the third floor. The little Irish girl from next door (who was a year younger than the other two) and the daughter of the orthopedic surgeon were in there with my daughter. The doctor''s daughter had, apparently, actually made the call. She seemed amazed that the police could find us. No one had any idea that tying up the police/emergency lines to play games was an unwise idea. Fun memory. Next time ask me about, ''The Howdy Game''. (In that my daughter was zipped up inside her parka and passed between her best friends who took turns punching her yelling, ''Howdy!'' before passing her on to the next one. I learned about it after it had been played for weeks when my daughter one night said to me, ''I don''t like ''The Howdy Game'''').

AGBF

My "voice" was in jest. . .basically after reading comments in other threads about the drama posts.

Luckily with cell phones, kids are less likely to be outside of earshot and making phone calls. I remember way back when, when my friends and I made loads of crank calls. Can''t get away with that anymore! lol

 

[asscherisme]

Date: 8/27/2009 6:27:29 PM
Author:MC
There are four kids running around in my house! FOUR. I do not know how people do it. Even two is too much for me. . .

Ugh, guess I better go check on them.

LOL MC, thats my life. I have 4 kids running around my house but they can't ever be sent home because they are home

Its crazy sometimes and I would be lying if I pretended to never be overwhelmed but I would not have it any other way

edited to add, I have more kids than any of my friends or family or even my children's friend's families. So I hear all the time "How on earth do you do it" What on earth am I suppose to say to that one ? I just smile and say they are here and I do the best I can

It does get crazy hectic sometimes. Mealtimes, and getting them off to school are tough. And bedtime can be rough also. Right now they are all in bed and I SO enjoy those quiet moments!

edited again to add:

MC, you should come over to my house wihen my daughter has 2 or 3 of her friends and my son has his best friend over. then I have 7 or 8 kids in my house You can come have a cup of coffee with me at my kitchen table and watch all the action!

 

[VRBeauty]

 

[MichelleCarmen]

Isn''t the best time when it''s quiet at night? I love to get about 2 or 3 pages of reading in before falling asleep!

The most kids I''ve had by myself at once was 7. The all were outside when my husband pulls into the driveway. He was horrified, walked straight upstairs and into the office and hid! lol

 

[Gailey]

Date: 8/29/2009 1:17:19 PM
Author: MC
Isn''t the best time when it''s quiet at night? I love to get about 2 or 3 pages of reading in before falling asleep!

The most kids I''ve had by myself at once was 7. The all were outside when my husband pulls into the driveway. He was horrified, walked straight upstairs and into the office and hid! lol

Yup, that would have been me! You have my unfailing admiration MC!

 

[lulu]

Actually, I find that it''s easier to have all four grandchildren rather than one or two. They entertain each other. Of course, the noise level is higher. I have a mantra I repeat throughout the day. Usually it''s something like "when they are all in bed I will have a lovely manhattan".