Babysitting the quads
12/08/2008

Babysitting the quads

I'm babysitting my niece and nephews, five-year-old quadruplets who live with their Mom, my sister, in Yuma, Arizona.  From the beginning, the quads have been a handful (you're kidding) that, to a certain extent, has gotten easier to manage with time.  Or maybe it's more like the challenges change.  No longer helpless infants, the quads walk, talk, toilet and feed themselves.  That's also the challenge: Lord, how they walk, talk, toilet, and feed themselves!

This morning, they were easy on me as I rousted them for pre-school.  I let them sleep til 7:15, knowing they'd gone to bed late.  Sleepy-headed, they didn't lament too long or loud that there Mom wasn't there (she'd prepped them the night before), went along with me about getting dressed before breakfast ("Mom let's us eat breakfast first!"), didn't object to the outfits chosen for them; didn't pitch a fit when the eggs came out over-medium; found and put on their own shoes; remembered their lunchbags (thank God, I'd packed them last night); and loaded themselves into the truck, not even fighting about who got to sit in front.  They asked a few times, "Are we late?"  I assured them "Not yet!"  Lukey hung back a moment to remind me to bring the directions his Mom had written for me.  En route, he also suggested that I return home the same way we came, since he wouldn't be along to help me. 

Arriving at school, they dutifully surrendered their toys (no reminder necessary!), waited patiently alongside the truck as their siblings were discharged from car seats, held hands in the parking lot as we walked to their classroom, signed themselves in with variously competent versions of their signatures, and cheerfully took their assigned seats without even a backwards glance.  Wow!  We did it! We got to school on time!  Once!

Proud and relieved, I returned home to find five unmade beds and a tableful of dirty dishes to tackle before I could sit down in front of my computer.  Oh yeah.  I didn't quite get EVERYTHING done before we left the house.

I've consistently marveled at my sister's ability to rise to the challenges that accompanied her wish to be a single mother at 40.  One of the strategies she's employed is to teach her children to be as self-sufficient as possible from an early age.  She doesn't have time to coddle each recalcitrant pre-schooler who doesn't want to wear that, eat that, find and fasten her shoes, follow the rules, and keep a good attitude.  She, too, has to get ready for work. 

Not that they're perfect little automatons.  We sometimes joke that none of them want for personality.  (See the above photo.)  Not that they don't sometimes wake up cranky, or sick, or have occasional meltdowns.  But by and large, they seem to understand that they're all in this together.  Their cooperation is an important part of the success and happiness of the whole.  Ironically, rather than robbing them of their childhoold, it seems to be building their self-esteem.  They're valuable members of the family unit.

Before dropping them off at school this morning, I thanked them for their help getting out of the house.  I told them I was proud of them.  They smiled, grabbed their lunchboxes, and said, "Tell Mom!"