Parenting: it's just logistics wrapped up in love ?

I said to Helen last night that "the very last thing I must forget when I leave is Molly's antibiotics" and sure enough, the very last thing I forgot as I left the hospital was Molly's antibiotics. That was OK though, I was less than 10 miles away and hey, it didn't matter that I was just about to sit down at my sister's house for my first proper cooked meal for a few days. Oh yes and of course I wasn't driving the car that had the free pass to park at Wycombe Hospital, I was driving the car that I would need later to bring the pups back from my sister's house and there was the small problem that I figured that I had just about enough petrol in that car to get to and from my sister's house and then maybe as far as the petrol station, but probably not as far as Wycombe Hospital. Oh yes and then I remembered that if I went straight to Wycombe, collected the antibiotics and then went immediately back to my sister's house, that would still leave the syringe that I needed to administer the antibiotics sitting on the shelf in our bathroom at home.

But it's all just logistics isn't it ?

The same logistics in fact, that meant that the rubbish bags from Christmas are still sitting under the lean-to and have not been put out for the bin men. Those would be the same bin bags that contained the remnants of the Indian we had on 30 December. As avid readers of this blog (both of you) will recall (for the rest of you, see the archived entry for that date), that was an especially hot curry prepared by our friend Uddin at Bucks Tandoori with the aim of bringing the birth on quicker. So those would be the same hot curry remnants that the puppies found their way into when they raided the bins yesterday. I hope they are regretting their actions, but anyone familiar with Larson cartoons will understand when I say that it is all "blah blah blah, Ginger, blah blah blah Ginger" when you tell the dogs repeatedly not to touch the bin bags. That reminds me, the accumulation of dog pooh in the back garden over the last few days must now be reaching industrial health hazard proportions. I shall look forward especially to picking up (scooping up ?) the ones with aluminium curry tins in them. Still, you have to love them, eh ?

Anyway, I managed to look after Molly on my own last night. In fact, having the 'assistance' of 2 teenage daughters is marginally worse than being on your own. I only really needed them to do 2 things this morning before they went to school: feed and walk the puppies. Tidying the kitchen, loading the dishwasher, putting a load of washing on would all have been bonuses that would have made me smile - although it might have made me worry that they were unwell. But as anyone who has ever had children will understand, not only did they not do any of those things, including the two I really needed them to do, they woke me just as I was passing from REM sleep to deep sleep after Molly's rather long feed that had started at five and after a false start and two nappy changes had finished just in time for me to get the kids up for school, to tell me that I had forgotten to get them things for their lunches, so would I give them some money to buy food at school ?

So that lunch money (essentially all of my loose change) would be the money that I will need for the pay and display car park later and that would have saved me having to carry Molly to somewhere where I can get change and then back to the car before some officious car park attendant with no sense of humour and a jobsworth attitude can give me a ticket that he cannot reverse, but that I could appeal against, if I could be bothered to write a grovelling letter to some similar, but faceless little shit sitting in a local authority office somewhere waiting for his index linked final salary pension scheme to kick in.

Oh God, I have just realised that if I sit here writing this any longer I will not have enough time to have a shower and/or breakfast before Molly wakes for her next feed.

It's a good job I had stint as a single parent when Emily and Charlotte were small, otherwise I am not sure I would not find all of this as much fun as I actually do.

Oh and of course, Emily and Charlotte are nothing like as bad as I have painted them above, they are much much worse - doh ! Did I write that out loud ? Not what I meant at all. They have actually been really really attentive. Except for this morning - but hopefully they had other things on their minds - like their exams.

It's odd isn't it ? But given my time all over again, I would just have more kids and do it sooner.

Parenting is a lot of logistics, but the love that drives you to keep on doing it is such a profound and rewarding love.

Ooops, Molly is awake, coming darling......